About the role

We're hiring a Principal Software Engineer/Tech Lead to help shape the future of our most ambitious client projects.

This is a senior, hands-on role that blends deep technical expertise with strategic consultancy. You’ll be working at the earliest stages of client engagements - helping uncover the real problems, defining the right approach, and proposing commercially viable, technically sound solutions without needing to escalate for support. You’ll represent Parallax with confidence, pitch ideas persuasively, and guide both clients and internal teams from initial scoping through to architecture, delivery and optimisation. Equally comfortable in the code and leading client workshops, you’ll set the technical direction while working in squads to build products for our clients.

Our clients are diverse, operating across multiple sectors and geographies, often targeting global audiences. You must be able to adapt your technical approach to fit existing technology stacks and standards - or define new ones entirely. Working at a strategic level, you will influence project roadmaps, craft Statements of Work and contribute directly to winning new engagements.

Key responsibilities

• Technical Strategy & Architecture: Define and develop the long-term software architecture strategy; establish and maintain best-practice design patterns, coding standards and technical guidelines across multiple projects.

• Discovery & Requirements: Lead technical discovery workshops with senior stakeholders, unpicking complex requirements, mapping system dependencies and aligning solutions to business objectives.

• Hands-On Development & Delivery: Balance strategic oversight with hands-on coding—designing, building and deploying critical features; conducting code reviews; and ensuring high performance, security and scalability.

• DevOps & Operational Excellence: Oversee CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, automated testing and monitoring to drive operational resilience and rapid iteration.

• Quality Assurance & Best Practice: Champion test-driven development, continuous integration, automated testing frameworks and peer review processes to uphold code quality.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with UX designers, product managers and QA specialists to deliver quality outcomes

• Thought Leadership: Represent our Technology Practice internally and externally—presenting at client meetings, industry events and contributing to the broader engineering community on emerging trends and innovations.

About You

• You possess a strong strategic mindset and outstanding interpersonal skills, enabling effective collaboration at all organisational levels.

• You excel under pressure, managing multiple complex workstreams while inspiring and guiding your team.

• You are self-motivated, highly organised and eager to challenge the status quo, driving continuous improvement in your own work and that of others.

• You have a deep passion for software engineering, meticulous attention to detail and a commitment to delivering solutions that drive tangible business outcomes.

• You show pragmatism around balancing the need for process and achieving outcomes.

Key Skills

What you need to have:

• Demonstrable experience delivering or building AI applications.

• Strong Next.js or equivalent Javascript framework, React and AWS or Azure experience.

• Ability to handle leadership with hands-on software development, working with teams to create and ship high-quality solutions.

• Ability to identify strategic opportunities and contribute to proposals, estimates and Statement of Work scoping.

• A deep understanding of software architecture principles, design patterns and system integration.

• A passion for Artificial Intelligence and continuous learning in the rapidly evolving landscape of Generative AI.

• Experience building AI-native products, including integrating LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Llama) and implementing AI-assisted development workflows.

• Ability to unpick and resolve complex technical problems, architecting scalable, maintainable solutions.

• Excellent communication skills and high emotional intelligence; able to translate complex AI concepts (like latency, context windows, or hallucinations) for non-technical stakeholders.

• Solid experience with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, containerisation and automation tooling.

• Strong consultancy or consultative experience, being able to build client relationships and manage expectations.

• Expertise in Agile/Scrum methodologies and iterative delivery practices.

Benefits

• Private medical healthcare (Bupa)

• 4% matched pension

• Hybrid working (flexible, office time not mandated but required for workshops/team events)

• Flexible working

• Quarterly company Hack Days

• 1 professional development day per month

• City centre office

• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays + up to 5 loyalty days

• Team events

• Enhanced maternity leave (12 weeks full pay, followed by 27 weeks of SMP)

• Enhanced paternity leave (3 weeks at 90% salary)

• 2 streaming services or gym membership subsidised

Diversity Statement

We believe that our brand, people and behaviours are a powerful platform for social change in the tech industry. Our mission is to become the clear choice for all employees, candidates and clients, bringing out the best in people and giving everyone an equitable chance to find fulfilment in their careers. Parallax values and respects all differences in people (seen and unseen) and encourages applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries.

We are committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences, abilities and backgrounds. If you are not 100% sure that you meet all the requirements but believe you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply and use the application questions to tell us about what you would bring to this role.