Our exciting client is seeking an Engineering Lead to build and lead small, high-performing Agile teams (4-8 engineers) delivering secure, scalable solutions within the UK National Security (NatSec) domain Engineering Lead - AI, Cloud & National Security Package - £110,000 - £120,000 dv bonus excellent package Location - Cheltenham - Hybrid Clearance - eDV Clearance Required Overview This is a hands-on leadership role combining architecture, software engineering, and team leadership, with a focus on Software, AI, data platforms, and cloud-native systems. Key Responsibilities Lead and mentor Agile engineering teams, driving high-quality, rapid delivery (DevSecOps) Own solution architecture, designing for secure and constrained environments. Lead the implementation of the "underpinning tech" for AI, including data pipelines. Act as a trusted advisor to UK Government stakeholders. Define technical roadmaps and support cloud transformation (AWS/Azure) Core Skills Background in UK National Security / Defence / Government. Strong leadership experience in software engineering teams. Proficiency in Python, Go, or Java ( TypeScript/Node.js desirable) Expertise in AWS or Azure, Terraform, and Kubernetes (EKS/AKS) Strong grounding in SQL (Postgres) and NoSQL (MongoDB/DynamoDB) Experience with CI/CD, microservices, TDD/BDD. Knowledge of secure system design. Desirable (AI & Data) Vector DBs: Milvus, Weaviate, Pinecone Data orchestration: Airflow, Prefect, Dagster Search: ElasticSearch / OpenSearch AI frameworks: LangChain, Hugging Face MLOps: MLflow, Kubeflow If you are looking for an opportunity to work on mission-critical systems at the forefront of UK National Security? Apply now or get in touch for a confidential conversation. As an industry leading, nationwide Marketing, Digital, Analytics, IT and Design recruitment agency, we are continually receiving new assignments to work on, so keep a close eye on our website, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages for a full list of current permanent and interim opportunities as well as marketplace news and fun stuff. Forward Role is operating as an employment agency.