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Lead Software Engineer - Node.js / Microservices – Hybrid (2 days onsite) – South Manchester

Are you the kind of Lead Developer who enjoys Greenfield work? The type of work where you are creating something *completely* from scratch instead of the same old bug reports and fixes?

This is an opportunity to join a small, forward-thinking tech business (around eight people within the development team) that is about to do a proper rebuild of its core platform. Right now, they’re running multiple legacy applications with different standards, different front ends, and different approaches to data. The plan is to scrap that complexity and start again, unifying everything.

You’ll be working on a genuinely greenfield rebuild, moving towards a modular, microservice-based architecture with a unified front-end shell that all services plug into. The focus is on modernising how the platform works, how services talk to each other, and how data moves in and out of the system.

As a Lead Developer, you’ll be hands-on, influential, and trusted to bring ideas to the table. This is not a “sit quietly and ticket-bash” position.

What we’re looking for:

* Strong experience as a Lead Developer or similar

* Solid backend experience with Node.js and microservices

* Frontend experience with React

* Experience working on large or complex applications

* Comfortable working across different technologies rather than staying in one narrow lane

* Open-minded when it comes to AI and modern tooling, not resistant to change

Advantageous skills include experience with:

* Bonus points if you’ve worked with messaging systems like Kafka or RabbitMQ

* Bonus points for a PHP background or experience modernising older platforms

If you enjoy rebuilding systems properly, care about clean architecture, and want to have real influence in a small team, this one is well worth a conversation