Senior Lead Engineer - Full Stack

We're seeking a Senior Lead / Staff Engineer who operates as a squad architect and systems thinker, owning complex technical problems end-to-end and shaping the evolution of REA's platforms at scale. This role is designed for a senior individual contributor who leads primarily through technical depth, architectural judgement, and operational ownership. The focus is on designing, building, evolving, and operating reliable systems over time while influencing engineering standards, mentoring engineers, and enabling predictable delivery across squads. You will work closely with engineers, Engineering Managers, Product Managers, and stakeholders to solve domain-wide problems and ensure systems remain scalable, secure, and maintainable as REA continues to grow.

The candidate will have responsibilities across the following functions:

Technical Execution:

• Design, build, review, and operate production-grade full-stack systems using modern engineering practices.
• Own delivery of complex, high-impact features and subsystems, leading by example in code quality, correctness, and performance.
• Work hands-on across frontend and backend codebases using technologies such as React, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Node.js .
• Drive high engineering standards through pairing, deep code reviews, and clear technical guidance.

Design and Architecture:

• Own architecture decisions for complex systems, documenting and communicating trade-offs through design reviews and Architecture Decision Records (ADRs).
• Shape subsystem and platform-level architecture aligned with REA's long-term technical strategy.
• Evaluate and articulate trade-offs across performance, reliability, security, cost, and maintainability.
• Design and evolve APIs, services, and data flows that scale across teams and domains.
• Design or contribute to event-driven and asynchronous architectures; experience with streaming platforms (e. g., Kafka) is a plus.

System Ownership and Operational Excellence:

• Own production systems end-to-end, including reliability, scalability, performance, observability, and technical debt management.
• Own application performance across the stack by identifying bottlenecks, driving optimisations, and ensuring systems meet latency and scalability targets.
• Design and operate containerised workloads using Docker and Kubernetes in production environments.
• Ensure systems are observable, resilient, and designed for safe failure and recovery.
• Champion continuous improvement in operational practices and developer experience.

Delivery Leadership:

• Contribute to planning and sequencing of work, helping teams balance scope, quality, and delivery timelines.
• Identify cross-team dependencies and technical risks early, unblocking teams through sound technical decisions.
• Partner closely with Engineering Managers and delivery leads to improve predictability without compromising quality.

Technical Leadership and Mentorship:

• Mentor and coach engineers through design reviews, technical discussions, and hands-on guidance.
• Raise the technical bar across squads by reinforcing strong engineering practices and architectural consistency.
• Influence without formal authority, earning trust through technical credibility and clarity of thinking.

Requirements:

• Proven experience operating as a senior contributor on complex production systems.
• Strong hands-on experience with modern full-stack technologies, including React, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Node.js .
• Experience designing and operating systems on AWS and/or GCP, including cloud-native services.
• Strong experience with SQL databases and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, DynamoDB).
• Hands-on experience with AWS RDS or other managed relational database services.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD principles, including trunk-based development, automated testing, progressive delivery, and rollback strategies.
• Experience designing and operating containerised systems using Docker and Kubernetes.
• Demonstrated ownership of system design, performance, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
• Ability to clearly communicate architectural decisions, trade-offs, and technical direction to diverse stakeholders.
• Strong mentoring mindset with the ability to elevate others without direct people management responsibility.
• Comfort working in a fast-moving environment where priorities evolve, and pragmatic trade-offs are required.

Nice to have:

• Experience with event-driven architectures, streaming platforms (e. g. Kafka), or large-scale asynchronous systems.
• Exposure to platform engineering or shared services models.
• Experience evolving legacy systems while delivering new capabilities.

Core Behavioural Signals:

• Shapes architecture and ensures long-term technical direction aligned with platform and domain goals.
• Drives system health, stability, performance, and maintainability.
• Solves domain-wide and cross-team technical problems.
• Enforces quality, standards, and strong engineering practices.
• Resolves complex dependencies across squads and systems.
• Influences technical strategy and represents engineering in decision forums.