Lead developer

Lead developers act as the primary point of contact for our clients, ensuring that teams are successful in their delivery. In this role, you will bring a strategic mindset to projects and spend time collaborating and negotiating with clients to bring a technical vision to life. Having a balance of high-level and tactical mindsets is a must, as you will spend time both with clients and your teammates.

At Thoughtworks, we believe in going above and beyond the standard and are committed to delivering best-in-class solutions that exceed our clients' expectations. Our standard engineering and delivery practices reflect our commitment to quality, and our team is always looking to innovate and improve. Lead developers guide and coach their teams in their implementation and application.

Job responsibilities

• You will champion and adopt best practices like writing clean and reusable code using TDD, pair programming and design patterns.
• Champion strategic AI-first software delivery (AIFSD): You will lead in the strategic integration of AI technologies across the software development life cycle, ensuring its use is deliberate and purposeful, to maximize quality, efficiency and innovative client solutions.
• You will assess legacy systems holistically (architecture, codebase health, delivery constraints, operational risk, data dependencies and team topology) and identify pragmatic modernisation paths aligned to business outcomes.
• You will connect technical modernisation decisions to measurable business outcomes, helping clients prioritise the work that creates the most value earliest.
• You will help clients reduce legacy risk by improving testability, deployment safety, observability and recovery practices before and during migration.
• You will use and advocate for continuous delivery practices to deliver high-quality software as well as value to end customers as early as possible.
• You will apply the latest technology thinking from our Technology Radar to solve client problems.
• You will apply a variety of languages and tools to your work and continue to code alongside Developers; you will not be post-technical in this role.
• You will efficiently utilize and champion DevSecOps tools and practices to build and deploy software, advocating devops culture and shifting security left in development.
• You will cultivate Thoughtworker growth and development by encouraging feedback and fostering an inclusive, supportive team culture.

Job qualifications

Technical skills

• You are well-versed in two or more languages (Java, Kotlin, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, C#, etc.C#, Ruby, Java, Javascript, etc.) and are comfortable with the latest Object-Oriented technology.
• Strong understanding of modernisation patterns and the judgment to apply them pragmatically in complex legacy environments.
• Ability to evaluate when to refactor, replatform, re-architect or replace, and to explain those trade-offs clearly to both technical and business stakeholders.
• You have led software development teams using Agile, Lean and/or Continuous.
• You have actively explored and advocated for emerging AI technologies, possessing a strong understanding of their benefits and applying thoughtful reflection to their strategic adoption within technical and project solutions.
• Bonus points if you have knowledge of cloud technology such as AWS, Docker or Kubernetes.
• You enjoy continuously learning and improving, whether it is through functional programming paradigms, event driven architecture, platform engineering or others.

Professional skills

• You have experience influencing others and always advocate for technical excellence while being open to change when needed.
• You bridge product and technology by helping to translate business needs to software requirements.
• You have the ability to develop and execute a technical vision with a focus on business value.
• You will act as a mentor for less experienced peers through both your technical knowledge and ability to inspire a team to deliver extraordinary impact together.
• You are resilient in ambiguous situations and can approach challenges from multiple perspectives.
  
  

  Other things to know

  Learning and development

  There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: However you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys.

  AI for recruitment

  At Thoughtworks, we use AI tools to support our recruitment team with administrative tasks such as drafting communications, scheduling interviews and writing job descriptions.

  Crucially, our AI tools do not screen, assess, rank or make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by our team and all selection decisions are made exclusively by our interviewers and hiring managers.

  We are committed to fairness and responsible AI. We actively manage our AI systems by testing, monitoring for biased outcomes and implementing mitigation measures. We hold our third-party vendors to these same high standards through a rigorous governance process. For additional information, please see our full Thoughtworks AI Policy for Recruitment.

  About Thoughtworks

  Thoughtworks is a dynamic and inclusive community of bright and supportive colleagues who are revolutionizing tech. As a leading technology consultancy, we’re pushing boundaries through our purposeful and impactful work. For 30+ years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator. Bring your brilliant expertise and commitment for continuous learning to Thoughtworks. Together, let’s be extraordinary