Lead Software Engineer

Payaca Ltd.; Bristol; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A green technology company in Bristol is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to develop low-carbon technology solutions. The role involves building software, mentoring peers, and leveraging AI for enhanced productivity. Candidates should have substantial experience with TypeScript and React or Node.js. This position emphasizes in-person collaboration and offers excellent benefits, including 33 days of holiday and a supportive work culture focused on sustainability.

Benefits

33 days holiday

Free breakfast and snacks

Cycle-to-work scheme

Team lunches and away trips

Qualifications

• 4+ years experience with TypeScript.
• 4+ years experience with React or Node.js/other backend languages.
• 3+ months experience in leveraging AI agents.
• Experience leading engineering projects in teams.

Responsibilities

• Build software solutions based on user requirements.
• Tackle technical projects requiring independent research.
• Mentor peers and champion process improvements.

Skills

TypeScript

React

Node.js

Leveraging AI agents

Job description

Lead Software Engineer

Ready to build software that tackles climate change head‑on? We’re Payaca, and we’re on a mission to accelerate the world’s net zero emissions transition. We’re looking for a Senior Frontend Software Engineer to join our small but mighty team in Bristol.

In the UK transport, electricity, and heating account for 60 % of greenhouse gas emissions. To limit global temperature increases to 2 °C, we and the rest of the planet must decarbonise these sectors by 2050. We know exactly how: switch to low‑carbon technologies like EVs, solar PV, and heat pumps. The problem we now face is how can we do so fast enough?

That’s where Payaca comes in. We empower installers of all these low‑carbon technologies, helping them work faster, scale their businesses and, in turn, scale the UK’s green energy future.

What you’ll do

You’ll be working across the codebase, with a focus on your specialism (frontend or backend). We’re a small company, so this role has a wide variety of responsibilities:

• Take user requirements and build solutions
• Tackle gnarly technical projects that require independent research
• Define in detail large projects for delegation within the engineering team
• Champion process improvements to enhance our engineering excellence
• Mentor your peers, helping them improve

We don’t have dedicated Product Managers, so you’ll have the freedom and responsibility to make key decisions yourself, in collaboration with the rest of نمو the team. This is a chance to have a direct impact on our product and our mission.

Our stack is built on modern, familiar technologies:

• Frontend: React,ución React Native / Expo, TypeScript, Tailwind, Figma
• Infrastructure: Google Cloud Run, Firebase Hosting, Terraform, CircleCI
• DX: Monorepo, pnpm, Macbook

What it’s like working at Payaca

Our engineers’ work calendar is almost empty, with most days fully available for focus time after the morning stand‑up.

We are T‑shaped engineers – we each have a specialty, but still get involved in areas outside of them. We encourage full‑stack development with expert review, avoiding ticket pass‑the‑parcel.

We are massive champions and adoptersbesondere of agentic AI across the company. To name a few examples:

• Our engineers delegate much of their workload to coding agents, enabling us not just to ship more features but also to tackle ambitious refactors.
• Our customer support staff use agents with codebase access to triage even the most obscure customer questions without interrupting engineers.
• Our customer onboarding staff use agents connected to our application APIs to turn lengthy manual tasks into a chat conversation.
• When we get a platform error notification in Slack, we’ll @ Claude to give it a first triage and fix attempt before distracting an engineer.
• Staff outside of engineering can contribute PRs (of decent quality!) reviewed by engineers but authored and amended entirely by agentic AI, thanks to well‑documented engineering tastes.

We are at the bleeding edge of AI tooling adoption because we are seeing huge productivity boosts in it. The way software businesses operate is changing as fast as the tooling and models evolve. Some might say it’s scary, but for us it’s exciting to witness what a small team can achieve today.

Your experience

• 4 + years experience with TypeScript
• 4 + years experience with React OR Node.js / other backend programming languages
• 3 + months experience in leveraging AI agents
• ExperienceCHK museums leading engineering projects in 3 + invade teams
• Experience championing agentic AI tooling adoption in an organisation

We value diverse perspectives and encourage you to apply even if you don’t tick every box.

What we offer

Work isn’t a grind here; it’s a mission. We’ve built a culture that supports you while you do your best work.

• Location: We’re 重庆时时 heart of Bristol, UK, and we believe in the power of in‑person collaboration. We expect our engineers to work primarily in the office.
监 Benefits: 33 days holiday (including bank holidays), free breakfast and snacks, a chest freezer full of ice cream for the summer, team lunches, and away trips. We also offer a cycle‑to‑work scheme and flexibility when you need it.\Casino

Our engineering产权 philosophy

If these principles resonate with you, you’ll feel right at home:

• Simple solutions beat clever ones every time.
• We ship small improvements frequently.
• Arguments win on merit, not seniority.
• If you’re not breaking stuff, you’re not moving fast enough—we focus on minimising impact over prevention.
• Meet the team (30‑minute interview): An informal chat to assess general compatibility and give you a chance to ask us questions.
• Technical take‑home (~2 h + 45‑minute interview): You’ll receive a dummy GitHub repository and a feature request to implement. We want to see how you work and how you approach a problem using your preferred tools. We’ll then discuss your solution and its trade‑offs.
• Technical presentation (1 h interview): You’ll prepare a ~20‑minute presentation on a technical topic of your choosing. Could be a work or hobby project, or an area you find particularly interesting. We’ll finish with a Q&A. This is байни an opportunity for you to demonstrate you really know your stuff!

How to apply

Ready to help build the future of green tech? If you’re excited about what we’re building and think you could contribute, we want to hear from you.

Payaca Ltd, company number 11173058. Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018 under registration ZA426301. Registered office at Queen Charlotte House, 53‑55 Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol, BS1 4HQ.