Sadler Recruitment
Lead Developer
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Role: Lead Developer
Salary: Salary based on experience (circa £70,000)
Location: Central Cardiff (5 days per week with flexibility)
About the Role
The studio began as a WordPress and PHP web agency. Over the last two years the work has shifted significantly; the current focus is building CRM platforms and learning management systems using React Native. The client base includes leading sports organisations across the UK and the project pipeline is busy.
Cloud infrastructure is managed externally through an established AWS relationship. This is an office-based role in Cardiff.
They are looking for a Lead Developer who has held a genuinely senior or lead position, has set technical standards from scratch, and has the confidence to challenge directors and stakeholders when the technical or commercial case demands it.
Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership & Standards
- Defining the technical direction across all development projects, with a clear focus on performance, scalability, accessibility and long-term maintainability
- Architecting and planning applications across the full project lifecycle, making considered decisions about approach
- Setting and enforcing coding standards through structured, consistent code reviews
- Monitoring emerging technologies, particularly within the React and React Native ecosystem, and making informed recommendations on adoption
Mentorship
- Leading and mentoring a team of developers, with a genuine commitment to building capability and creating an environment where people are supported to grow
- Keeping the team focused on delivery objectives, resolving blockers, and breaking complex workloads into clearly defined, manageable tasks
- Promoting knowledge sharing and best practice in a structured way that raises collective standards across the team
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Project Delivery & Stakeholder Communication
- Taking professional accountability for delivery; identifying risks early, communicating them clearly and working to resolve them rather than absorbing problems silently
- Collaborating with designers, project managers and clients to translate strategic intent into functional, user-centred digital products
- Communicating project status, technical decisions and risks clearly and confidently to stakeholders at all levels, including directors and clients
Strategic & Business Contribution
- Contributing meaningfully to decisions around technology adoption and how the studio's technical offering continues to evolve
- Advocating for the development team's needs and ensuring their perspective is represented in business-level conversations
- Helping the team understand wider business goals so that technical decisions are consistently made in the right commercial context
Experience required
- A solid background in modern web development with a demonstrable move into more complex application development, specifically with React and React Native.
- Proven experience in a senior or lead development role where you have set technical standards
- Hands-on experience with REST and GraphQL APIs, and solid working knowledge of relational databases including Postgres and MongoDB
- Practical experience with Git workflows and establishing CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment
- Familiarity with AWS cloud services and experience working within Agile methodologies using tools such as JIRA
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Skills & Attributes
- A technically credible leader who leads by example and takes genuine ownership of the standards the team works to
- Commercially aware and able to translate business objectives into sound technical decisions, then communicate those decisions clearly to non-technical stakeholders
- Confident holding a position under pressure and capable of having direct, constructive conversations with directors and clients when the situation calls for it
- Highly organised and able to manage competing priorities across a fast-moving project environment without losing grip on the detail
- Collaborative in approach, with the interpersonal credibility to work effectively across design, strategy and leadership functions
Desirable
- WordPress development experience, reflecting the studio's background and its continued relevance across certain client accounts
- Experience integrating or working alongside AI models within digital products
- Background working with CRM platforms or learning management systems
- Exposure to Vue.js or TypeScript alongside a React-primary skillset
What's on Offer
- A lead role with real influence over technical direction and the standards the team works to
- Work with some of the UK's leading sports organisations on complex, high-profile digital products
- Cloud infrastructure supported through an established AWS relationship, keeping the focus on product and people
- Office-based in Cardiff with a collaborative team of developers, designers and strategists
- Competitive salary reflective of the seniority and experience the role requires
For immediate consideration, please send your CV across today.
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