Katchr
Engineering Team Lead
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Why This Role Matters
We're growing our engineering capability and have reached the point where we need dedicated day-to-day leadership for our engineering team.
Until now, many of those responsibilities have sat with our CTO. We're looking for an Engineering Team Lead who can take ownership of the team - managing and developing our engineers, improving delivery, removing blockers and helping us recruit and build the team as we grow.
This will give our CTO more space to focus on technical strategy, architecture, innovation and our future direction, while you become the go-to person for the day-to-day leadership and performance of Engineering.
We're particularly interested in someone who has worked in a start-up or scale-up environment and understands what it takes to lead a small engineering team where priorities can move quickly and everyone needs to be willing to get stuck in.
You'll bring enough structure to help us scale, without introducing unnecessary process or losing the pace and ownership that has helped us get to where we are today.
The Team You're Joining
You'll join an established Product & Engineering function with experienced engineers, clear product priorities and a strong understanding of our customers and the legal technology market.
We already have:
- A small engineering team with strong technical knowledge.
- Agile delivery practices including stand-ups, sprint planning and retrospectives.
- Close collaboration between Product, Engineering and senior leadership.
- A technology environment built around C#, SQL Server, Azure and Power BI.
- A culture that encourages learning, experimentation and the adoption of new technologies, including AI.
Where We Need Your Help
As we grow, we need someone who can:
- Take ownership of the day-to-day leadership and management of Engineering from the CTO.
- Create greater clarity, accountability and momentum across delivery.
- Identify and remove blockers before they slow the team down.
- Coach and develop engineers through regular 1:1s, feedback and development conversations.
- Understand the skills and capabilities we'll need as we grow.
- Recruit, onboard and develop new engineers.
- Strengthen collaboration between Engineering, Product and the wider business.
- Help us introduce the right level of structure as we scale without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
What You'll Help Us Achieve
We focus on outcomes rather than simply activities. Success in this role means creating meaningful impact for our customers, our business and our team.
Customer Impact
Great engineering leadership should ultimately result in better outcomes for our customers.
Success looks like:
- Engineering delivery is reliable and aligned with customer needs.
- Product and Engineering work closely together to understand the customer problems we're solving.
- Customer-impacting work is prioritised effectively and delivered with pace.
- Blockers and delivery risks are identified and resolved early.
- Work is delivered to a high standard with minimal avoidable rework.
- Our engineering capability can continue to support our customers as the business grows.
Business Impact
As we grow, we need Engineering to operate effectively without relying on our CTO for day-to-day team leadership.
Success looks like:
- You become the go-to person for the day-to-day leadership and management of Engineering.
- People-management and delivery responsibilities transition successfully from the CTO to you.
- The CTO has greater capacity to focus on technical strategy, architecture, innovation and our longer-term technology roadmap.
- Engineering capacity is used effectively, reducing bottlenecks and delays.
- Delivery becomes more predictable, giving the wider business greater confidence in what Engineering can deliver and when.
- We identify and recruit the engineering skills we need as the business grows.
- We introduce enough structure to support growth while retaining the agility and ownership of a start-up environment.
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Team Impact
We want to build a small, high-performing engineering team where talented people have clear direction, are supported to develop and take real ownership of their work.
Success looks like:
- Engineers have clear priorities, expectations and day-to-day leadership.
- Regular 1:1s, coaching and feedback help people continually develop.
- Engineers are empowered to take ownership, solve problems and make good decisions.
- Stand-ups, sprint planning and retrospectives are focused and effective.
- Knowledge sharing and continuous learning, including AI and new technologies, are part of how the team works.
- New engineers are recruited and onboarded effectively.
- We retain a collaborative, accountable and hands-on culture as the team grows.
What Success Looks Like
In Your First 3 Months
You'll have:
- Built strong relationships across Engineering, Product and leadership.
- Developed a good understanding of our products, customers, technology and engineering priorities.
- Got to know the strengths, development needs and ambitions of each engineer.
- Started taking ownership of day-to-day team and delivery responsibilities from the CTO.
- Established an effective rhythm for 1:1s, stand-ups, sprint planning and retrospectives.
- Identified the biggest blockers and opportunities to improve delivery.
- Built a clear view of the skills and capabilities we'll need as the engineering team grows.
By The End of Your First Year
You'll have:
- Established yourself as the go-to leader for the engineering team's day-to-day.
- Taken ownership of team leadership and delivery responsibilities previously held by the CTO.
- Improved engineering delivery flow, predictability and accountability.
- Given our CTO meaningful capacity to focus on technical strategy and future direction.
- Built and developed a high-performing engineering team that can grow with the business.
- Played a leading role in recruiting and onboarding new engineering talent.
- Developed engineers through meaningful coaching, feedback and progression.
- Created a scalable but lightweight approach to engineering delivery.
- Strengthened the connection between Engineering, Product, our customers and wider business goals.
How You'll Work
No two days will look exactly the same, but you'll typically spend your time:
- Leading and managing our small engineering team.
- Coaching engineers through regular 1:1s, feedback and development conversations.
- Leading stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospectives and delivery reviews.
- Identifying and removing blockers to keep delivery moving.
- Working closely with Product to align engineering activity with customer and business priorities.
- Working with the CTO on engineering priorities, team capability and technical direction.
- Identifying hiring needs and playing an active role in recruitment, interviewing and onboarding.
- Encouraging knowledge sharing, continuous improvement and the adoption of useful new technologies, including AI.
- Remaining close enough to the technology to contribute to technical problem-solving when it adds value.
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What You'll Bring
We're less interested in someone who ticks every possible box and more interested in someone who has experienced the realities of building and leading engineering teams in a growing business.
Essential
- Experience working in a start-up or scale-up technology environment.
- Experience managing a small team of software engineers, including 1:1s, coaching, performance and development.
- Experience taking day-to-day team, people or delivery responsibilities from a CTO, Technical Director or similar technical leader.
- Experience building or growing engineering teams, including recruitment, interviewing and onboarding.
- A strong software engineering background with the technical credibility to support engineers and contribute where needed.
- Experience with C#, SQL Server, Azure and Power BI.
- A strong understanding of agile engineering practices.
- The ability to improve structure and delivery without introducing unnecessary process.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
- A proactive, hands-on approach and the ability to move comfortably between people leadership, delivery and technical problem-solving.
Bonus Points For
- Experience joining a CTO-led engineering function at the point where day-to-day leadership needed to be delegated.
- Experience scaling an engineering team while maintaining a strong culture.
- Exposure to AI, data platforms or modern development practices.
Benefits
- Annual profit share.
- Private healthcare and rewards.
- Flexible working.
- Loyalty holiday bonus.
- 5% employer pension contribution.
Our Values
Customer Focused
Everything starts with understanding our customers and helping them succeed.
Authentic
We build trust through honesty, integrity and consistency.
Collaborative
We work together, share knowledge and support one another.
Transparent
We communicate openly, celebrate successes and learn from challenges.
Improvers
We stay curious, embrace feedback and continuously look for better ways to work.
Why Join Us?
We're building technology that helps law firms make smarter decisions and perform at their best.
You'll join us at an important point in our growth. This isn't about stepping into a large engineering department with layers of management and established processes. It's an opportunity to lead, build and shape a small engineering team and have a genuine influence on how our engineering function develops.
You'll work closely with our CTO and Product team, with the autonomy to take ownership, improve how we work and build the engineering capability we need for the future.
We offer flexibility, trust, continuous learning opportunities and the chance to make a genuine impact on our customers, our team and our business.
Equal Opportunities
We're committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome, respected and able to do their best work.
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