Lyst

Lead Engineer

Lyst

full-time

Posted on:

Location Type: Hybrid

Location: London • 🇬🇧 United Kingdom

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Job Level

Senior

Tech Stack

PythonReact

About the role

  • Architect, Builder, Mentor This role is designed for a "force multiplier"—someone who writes excellent code but creates even more value by enabling the team around them. It is an ideal launchpad for those looking to progress their career in either direction (towards a Staff/Principal Engineer or a management track).
  • Technical Authority: You are the guardian of the technical vision. You will lead system design sessions, own the architecture for complex features, and make the hard calls on technical trade-offs.
  • Hands-on Delivery: You will be in the codebase daily. Whether it's building the skeleton of a new service, refactoring a legacy bottleneck, or pairing with engineers to unblock them, you lead from the front.
  • Mentorship over Management: You are responsible for technical growth—mentoring engineers, design pairing and fostering a culture of engineering excellence.
  • Strategic Alignment: You will collaborate with Product and Engineering Leadership to define a 6-month product and technical roadmap that aligns with business goals.
  • Within your first 3 months, you will:
  • Impact: Ship meaningful features or optimisation that impacts our 160M+ users.
  • System Ownership: Assess our current architecture and CI/CD practices, identifying a number of key areas for improvement.
  • Delivery: Assess your team's agile ceremonies, practices and tooling; begin implementing iterative changes to improve velocity and happiness.
  • Leadership: Establish yourself as the "go-to" technical voice for Product and other Stakeholders, bridging the gap between business requirements and engineering reality.

Requirements

  • People-First Mindset: Proven experience managing and mentoring engineers. You know how to inspire a team, create a collaborative culture and are highly effective in performance management.
  • Delivery Expertise: You balance people with structured and data-driven approaches. You know how to use Agile/Lean processes to make delivery painless and predictable.
  • Technical Expertise: You have a strong background in software engineering building web and/or app products and system design. You can compartmentalize complex problems and guide a team toward robust architectural solutions.
  • Communication: You can explain technical risks to non-technical stakeholders and translate business goals into engineering tasks.
  • Strategic Thinking: You can balance the immediate need to ship features with the long-term need for platform reliability and scalability.
  • **Bonus points if you have experience with high-traffic consumer/ecommerce platforms or Python/React stacks.**
Benefits
  • Time Off: 29 days annual leave + 8 bank holidays.
  • Health: Private Healthcare by Vitality & discounted eye care.
  • Fashion: The Lyst Clothing Benefit (£250 Year 1, rising to £1000 by Year 4).
  • Growth: £1500 annual learning budget for conferences and training.
  • Culture: Team meet-ups, social events, and sports activities.
  • Family & Commute: Childcare vouchers, Cycle-to-work scheme, and season ticket loans.
  • Diversity & Inclusion at Lyst Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that several demographics are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Lyst, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly, we encourage you to apply.

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard skills
system designsoftware engineeringarchitectureCI/CD practicesAgile processesLean processesPythonReactweb developmentapp development
Soft skills
mentorshipcollaborationperformance managementcommunicationstrategic thinkingleadershipinspirationteam buildingproblem solvingtechnical vision