Tech Lead - British Airways Holidays

AIRMILES Travel Promotions, Ltd.; Crawley; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading travel technology company in Crawley is seeking a Tech Lead to oversee the technical direction of their new ecommerce platform. The ideal candidate will combine leadership with hands-on engineering, mentor a team, and collaborate with product stakeholders to achieve ambitious growth. Strong full-stack skills and experience in leading digital platforms are essential. The role offers a hybrid working model, allowing flexibility in the workplace.

Qualifications

• Experience as a Tech Lead, Engineering Manager or Architect on ecommerce or large-scale digital platforms.
• Strong full-stack skills with depth in either frontend or backend.
• Hands-on expertise with AWS services and infrastructure as code.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a cross-functional squad of engineers.
• Own the technical direction and architecture of the ecommerce platform.
• Collaborate with product managers to bridge technical execution with commercial goals.

Skills

Leadership

Full-stack development

Technical decision-making

Collaboration

Agile delivery

Tools

AWS

Terraform

Docker

NodeJS

React

Job description

Who we are ????

We’re the people behind the global loyalty currency, Avios, and home to three ambitious, growing businesses; IAG Loyalty, British Airways Holidays and The Wine Flyer. Each business has its own goals and strategy, but collectively we create brilliant experiences for our global customers.

Right now, we’re on a huge journey of growth and transformation. At British Airways Holidays, we’ve just launched the MVP of our brand-new ecommerce platform – and now we’re building a permanent team to take it to the next level. This is your chance to shape the future of travel tech.

The opportunity

We’re looking for a Tech Lead to guide the next phase of our platform, Darwin. You’ll combine hands-on engineering with high-level leadership, setting the technical vision and helping a brand-new team thrive.

This isn’t just about managing delivery – it’s about building something lasting. You’ll mentor engineers, influence strategy, and work closely with product and business leaders to ensure our platform scales to meet ambitious growth plans.

You’ll split your time between home and the office – with two days a week in Crawley, and every other week also spending a day in our Victoria office alongside our wider Technology, Data & AI teams.

This role is based out of our Crawley office with bi-weekly travel to our London office.

We call our approach to hybrid working The Blend — it’s about giving you the flexibility to choose where you do your best work, while staying connected with your team and the wider business. This means you will be required to spend at least two days per week in the office, with the rest of the time working from home. You may also be required to work from one of our other office or partner locations, based on your role and 'to do' list.

What you’ll get up to

As a Tech Lead, you’ll take ownership of the technical direction and architecture of our new ecommerce platform, ensuring it is robust, scalable and built with the customer in mind. You’ll lead and mentor a cross-functional squad of engineers, setting the tone for how the team works together and helping individuals grow both technically and professionally.

While your focus will often be strategic – shaping architecture, aligning stakeholders and influencing wider engineering conversations – you’ll also roll up your sleeves when it matters most. Whether it’s tackling a complex piece of code or unblocking the team during a high-priority delivery, you’ll strike the right balance between hands-on contribution and leadership.

Collaboration will be at the heart of your role. You’ll partner closely with product managers and business stakeholders to translate vision into reality, bridging technical execution with commercial goals. At the same time, you’ll drive best practices in agile delivery, CI/CD and DevOps, and help establish a culture of continuous improvement as we grow this brand-new permanent engineering team.

What we need from you

We know not everyone ticks every box – if you’re excited by the opportunity, we’d love to hear from you.

• Experience as a Tech Lead, Engineering Manager or Architect, ideally on ecommerce or large-scale digital platforms.

• Strong full-stack skills, with depth in either frontend (React, TypeScript, JavaScript) or backend (NodeJS, microservices, Java).

• Hands-on expertise with AWS services, infrastructure as code (Terraform preferred), and containers/orchestration (Docker, ECS).

• Proven ability to lead teams, influence stakeholders, and make big technical decisions.

• A balance of strategic thinking and hands-on delivery – comfortable switching between code, design and leadership.

• A passion for building innovative products that make a real impact for customers.

• Comfortable in fast-moving, evolving environments, with the drive to make change happen.

Experience in travel, loyalty, or retail platforms is a bonus – but what matters most is your ability to lead, inspire, and deliver

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at IAG Loyalty

Our vision, 'to create the world's most rewarding experiences,' applies not only to our customers but for our colleagues too. It's about taking belonging seriously, actively fostering a culture where everyone feels welcomed and valued by embracing diverse identities, personal histories, and perspectives.

This commitment makes IAG Loyalty a rewarding place to work and enhances our ability to solve complex problems, drive innovation, and better serve our customers and communities.

Please let us know if we can make any reasonable adjustments to support your interview process with us.