Lead Software Engineer (London Based 2-3x week)

Voice AI Space; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading voice technology company in the UK is seeking a Lead Software Engineer (People Manager) to mentor a talented team while leading the design and development of innovative AI solutions. Candidates should have at least 5 years’ experience in software engineering and expertise in Python and Typescript. Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits included.

Benefits

Employee share options plan

25 days holiday, plus bank holidays

Flexible working from home

Work from outside of the UK for up to 6 months

24/7 health support

Enhanced parental leave

Bike2Work scheme

Annual learning allowance

One-off WFH allowance

Company-funded fertility programs

Menopause care program

Private healthcare and dental cover

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading a team of 3+ engineers.
• Experience coaching engineers through design decisions.
• Comfortable leading people while being hands-on.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a cross-functional team.
• Drive software architecture of multitenant AI platform.
• Ensure robust and scalable developer APIs.

Skills

Team leadership

Technical mentorship

Software architecture

Python

Typescript

Cloud services (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Job description

PolyAI automates customer service through lifelike voice assistants that let customers lead a conversation. Our voice assistants make it possible for businesses to deliver outstanding customer service that rivals their human agents. Our customers, which include the world’s leading logos, are expanding how they use our platform, driving automation of critical customer service operations and integrating PolyAI into their daily customer service workflows.

We’re looking for talented Lead Software Engineers (People Manager) to join our Engineering team. you will play a key role in delivering the next generation of our no-code agent studio platform. In this role, you’ll be leading the design and development of features that power insight generation, reporting, and the data-driven backbone of our no-code platform for building voice assistants.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a cross-functional team of engineers, balancing hands‑on technical work with people leadership.
• Participate directly in review cycles and career development paths for team, while setting the bar for technical quality and maintainability.
• Drive sprint and review cycles, ensuring clear goals, predictable delivery, and accountability across the team.
• Partner closely with Product to translate business goals into an actionable roadmap and measurable outcomes.
• Drive the software architecture of our multitenant conversational AI platform, ensuring robustness, scalability, and reliability – particularly in externally facing developer APIs.
• Champion and enforce strong engineering standards and best practices across the team.

Requirements

• Proven experience leading a team of 3+ engineers, including sprint planning, performance reviews, technical mentorship, technical project planning, scoping, architecture and delivery.
• Experience coaching engineers through design decisions, trade‑offs, and technical challenges.
• Comfortable leading people and setting technical direction while staying closely engaged with the engineering work.
• 5+ years of professional experience as a Software Engineer in a people management role, with a track record of delivering production features.
• Significant expertise in Python and Typescript is a must.
• Experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure).

We currently have multiple engineering roles open across different teams. Please apply to the one role that feels like the best match for your skills and experience. Our Talent team will review your application against all open positions. If we believe you may be a stronger fit for another role or team, we’ll ensure your application is considered there as well.

We offer competitive compensation based on experience, expertise, and the level of responsibility. This role also includes equity, giving you the opportunity to share in the long‑term success of the business. The listed expectations reflect what we're hiring for, so we encourage you to review the job description carefully.

Benefits

• 💰 Participation in the company’s employee share options plan
• 🏝 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays
• 🏡 Flexible working from home policy
• 🌎 Work from outside of the UK for up to 6 months each year
• 🫂 TELUS Health EAP 24/7 – offers you and your chosen family confidential, judgment‑free support for any work, health, or life challenge
• 🧡 Enhanced parental leave
• 🚲 Bike2Work scheme
• 📚 Annual learning and development allowance
• 🏡 We’re all about making WFH work for you – that’s why we offer a one‑off WFH allowance when you join. Offering perks like noise‑cancelling headphones or a comfortable desk chair to boost your comfort and focus!
• 👨👩👧 Company‑funded fertility and family‑forming programmes
• 🌸 Menopause care programme with Maven
• 🏥 Private healthcare and dental cover, discounts on gym members and relaxation apps, and access to a range of mental health programmes

At PolyAI, we take great pride in our values – they guide everything we do. We believe that a strong culture leads to meaningful work and lasting impact.

Only the best

We expect the best from our people, we hire people that expect the best from themselves, and we nurture this drive for excellence.

Ownership

We care deeply about what we do. We take ownership of our initiatives, decisions and outcomes.

Relentlessly improve

We demand more from ourselves and are always evolving. Continuous, obsessive improvement is the only way we will transform the world of conversational AI.

Bias for action

Our world moves quickly and so do we. We take calculated risks and we deliver impact fast.

Disagree and commit

We are all working toward the same goal. If we don’t agree with something, we work hard to understand it and when a decision is made, we accept it and give it our all.

Build for people

We want the world to enjoy the experiences they have with us. We are building for a future that prefers automation.

PolyAI is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All employment decisions at PolyAI will be based on the business needs without attention to ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, neurodiversity status or disability status.

Kindly find the Privacy Notice for our recruitment process by following the link here. This document provides important information regarding how we handle your personal data throughout the recruitment journey.