Overview
We're Kingfisher, A team made up of over 74,000 passionate people who bring Kingfisher - and all our other brands: B&Q, Screwfix, Brico Depot, Castorama and Koctas - to life. That's right, we're big, but we have ambitions to become even bigger and even better. We want to become the leading home improvement company and grow the largest community of home improvers in the world. And that's where you come in.
At Kingfisher our customers come from all walks of life, and so do we. We want to ensure that all colleagues, future colleagues, and applicants to Kingfisher are treated equally regardless of age, gender, marital or civil partnership status, colour, ethnic or national origin, culture, religious belief, philosophical belief, political opinion, disability, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation.
We are open to flexible and agile working, both of hours and location. Therefore, we offer colleagues a blend of working from home and our offices, located in London, Southampton & Yeovil. Talk to us about how we can best support you
We are going through an exciting period of change and are looking for a highly motivated and experienced Lead Software Engineer to join our Software Engineering team.
This role is a senior individual contributor who also acts as a technical leader and multiplier. You will work closely with your squad and cross-functional partners to solve complex, ambiguous problems and deliver high-quality software that supports our long-term engineering and business goals.
What's the job?
You will play a key role in shaping technical direction, driving engineering excellence, and helping to grow a world-class engineering culture within the retail technology space.
Technical Leadership
* Provide technical leadership to your squad through coaching, mentoring, and hands-on contribution
* Influence squad objectives and longer-term technical direction
* Support and guide engineers through complex design and delivery challenges
Delivery & Design
* Lead the design and implementation of complex technical solutions
* Work closely with Engineering Squad Leads, Principal Engineers, and Architecture to produce low-level designs aligned to long-term strategy
* Collaborate with Product, Design, and other stakeholders to translate user needs into high-quality, testable features
Engineering Excellence
* Champion engineering best practices, quality, and continuous improvement
* Design and build scalable, maintainable, and well-observed systems
* Ensure software is integrated with monitoring, observability, and support tooling
* Promote strong design patterns and robust engineering standards
Recruitment & Onboarding
* Contribute to hiring activities across the engineering community
* Participate in interviews and provide clear, constructive feedback
* Support onboarding and knowledge transfer for new joiners
Knowledge Sharing & Community
* Promote effective documentation and knowledge sharing within the squad and wider engineering community
* Stay up to date with emerging technologies and industry trends and introduce them where appropriate
Stakeholder Management
* Build strong, collaborative relationships with stakeholders within and beyond Engineering
Personal Development & Innovation
* Take ownership of your own learning and development
* Promote a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and innovation
* Tackle problems of significant complexity with creativity and pragmatism
What you'll bring
Core skills and experience
* Proven experience designing and delivering complex software solutions
* Strong ability to lead, influence, and motivate engineers
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills
* Expert understanding of software engineering and quality engineering principles
* Ability to work with high levels of autonomy and accountability
Technical experience
* Advanced experience with modern JavaScript technologies, including:
o TypeScript
o React
o
* Experience with modern JavaScript frameworks such as React or Vue
* Strong knowledge of HTML and CSS, including building scalable component libraries
* Experience designing and developing RESTful and GraphQL APIs
* Experience with AWS services, including Lambda and AWS CDK
* Experience working with microservices and event-driven architectures
* Experience delivering cloud-based solutions
* Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines and source control systems
* Solid understanding of API design and JSON-based REST services
People & collaboration
* Experience mentoring and coaching other software engineers
* Strong stakeholder and relationship management skills
Be Customer Focused – constantly improving our customers' experience
* We listen to our customers and colleagues
* We innovate products and experiences to stay ahead
Be Human – leading with purpose, humanity and care
* We do the right thing
* We invest in our people and build great teams
Be Curious – thrive on learning, thinking beyond the obvious
* We focus externally, globally and build the long term
* We experiment and share our learnings
Be Agile – building trust and empowering people to work with agility
* We act with pace, not perfection, role modelling 80/20
* We take risks, fail fast and adapt quickly
Be Inclusive – inspiring diverse teams to achieve together
* We celebrate difference as a strength
* We collaborate, breaking down silos
Be Accountable – owning the plan, delivering results and growth
* We focus on performance outcomes
* We prioritise and simplify for others
At Kingfisher, we value the perspectives that any new team members bring, and we want to hear from you. We encourage you to apply for one of our roles even if you do not feel you meet 100% of the requirements.
In return, we offer an inclusive environment, where what you can achieve is limited only by your imagination We encourage new ideas, actively support experimentation, and strive to build an environment where everyone can be their best self. Find out more about Diversity & Inclusion at Kingfisher here
We also offer a competitive benefits package and plenty of opportunities to stretch and grow your career.
Interested? Great, apply now and help us to Power the Possible.
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