Team Lead - Enterprise .NET Developer

About the Role:

We are seeking an experienced Team Lead - .NET Core to lead our backend development team and drive the technical strategy for our enterprise applications built on the Microsoft technology stack. In this role, you will lead a team of talented .NET developers, guiding them through complex engineering challenges while fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

You will play a critical role in architecting scalable, high-performance solutions using modern .NET technologies, ensuring the robustness, reliability, and maintainability of our applications. Working closely with Product Management, business stakeholders, and cross-functional teams, you will translate business goals into technical strategies that align with long-term system growth.

As a hands-on leader, you’ll be responsible for establishing engineering standards, driving best practices, and ensuring high-quality delivery across the team. Your expertise in API development, microservices, Azure cloud, DevOps, and SQL optimization will enable you to make key decisions that shape the success of our platforms.

We'll trust you to:

• Lead and mentor a team of 5-10 .NET developers, promoting technical excellence and professional growth
• Architect and design scalable, high-performance applications using.NET Core/.NET 8+ and C#
• Drive technical decisions on Microsoft frameworks, design patterns, and architectural approaches
• Establish and enforce coding standards, best practices, and code review processes across the Microsoft stack
• Collaborate with Product Management and stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions
• Oversee the design and implementation of RESTful APIs, microservices, and distributed systems using ASP.NET Core
• Champion DevOps practices using Azure DevOps for CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and infrastructure as code
• Manage and optimise SQL Server databases, including performance tuning, indexing strategies, and data modelling
• Identify technical debt, performance bottlenecks, and drive continuous improvement initiatives
• Participate in Agile ceremonies and contribute to sprint planning, estimation, and delivery
• Stay current with .NET and Microsoft ecosystem advancements and evaluate emerging technologies

You'll need to have:

• 8+ years of professional software development experience on the Microsoft technology stack
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with .NET Core/.NET 5+ and C#
• 3+ years of experience in a technical leadership or team lead role
• Deep expertise in ASP.NET Core Web API, MVC patterns, middleware, and dependency injection
• Strong proficiency in Entity Framework Core, including migrations, query optimisation, and database-first/code-first approaches
• Advanced SQL Server skills, including stored procedures, performance tuning, indexing, and query plan analysis
• Experience with Azure cloud services (App Services, Azure Functions, Azure SQL, Azure Service Bus, Azure Key Vault, Application Insights)
• Solid understanding of asynchronous programming, multithreading, and performance optimisation in .NET
• Experience with unit testing and integration testing using xUnit, NUnit
• Proficiency with Azure DevOps for source control, CI/CD pipelines, work item tracking, and artefact management
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience containerization using Docker
• Knowledge of Azure Service Bus, Azure Event Grid, or Azure Event Hubs for event-driven architectures
• Experience with Azure Active Directory (Entra ID) and Microsoft Identity Platform for authentication and authorisation
• Familiarity with Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Cache for Redis, or Azure Blob Storage
• Experience with Azure API Management and API gateway patterns
• Hands-on experience with Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and Log Analytics for observability
• Familiarity with Blazor, MAUI, or other Microsoft front-end technologies
• Microsoft certifications (Azure Developer Associate, Azure Solutions Architect) are a plus
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field