Are you an Engineering professional experienced in leadership, excited by AI technology and looking for your next challenge? Then this just might be the role for you!

We are looking for an experienced Lead Software Engineer to join our Mantis product development team. This team is responsible for the design and development of our suite of data driven products for both media owners and advertisers.

Who we are

Mantis is a technology business with a suite of data driven products for both media owners and advertisers - utilising its tech platform and products to help both sides of the digital ecosystem. Mantis prides itself in being at the forefront of innovation and producing the best of the best in AI data driven tools and products for media owners and advertisers.

Built by Reach PLC and powered by IBM Watson, Mantis is the most powerful and precise approach to brand safety and contextual advertising available in the market today!

In 2024 we are continuing to grow and scale, and are looking to add ambitious and dynamic talent to our teams to help us achieve our goals.

Reach Plc is the UK’s largest commercial news publisher, home to the UK and Ireland’s most iconic digital platforms, magazines and newspapers, and is ranked 19th in the UK’s top 50 Inclusive Employers for 2023.

Role Location

This role is predominantly remote, but will require occasional travel into our Canary Wharf hub for team sessions. For this reason, the successful candidate will need to be able to travel into London when required.

You will be working in the Mantis product development team enhancing and improving our current systems and building the next generation of Mantis services and products.

You will be designing solutions and writing application code (backend services, APIs and frontend components) and DevOps code to provision and manage the infrastructure it runs on. We use multiple cloud platforms to host our applications (AWS and IBM Cloud), using the cloud services and, increasingly, serverless infrastructure.

You will lead and manage a team of software engineers, providing technical direction and guidance for development projects. You will advise and help other team members and will review and approve code changes.

You will research, evaluate, and recommend new technologies, processes and tools to enhance development capabilities.

You will be involved from initial design, through POC to full build, delivery and service management, working with internal stakeholders and external customer teams.

You will work closely with product owners to ensure that everything we build meets our high standards, is delivered to agreed timescales and that we’re using the most appropriate technologies and development practices. You will provide high level estimates, technical project plans and timelines to assist with project planning.

We are looking for an experienced Lead Software Engineer, who can use their experience to build and lead a team of developers, focussing on timely delivery of quality products developed using best practices, tools and techniques.

You’ll have extensive experience building scalable B2B and B2C products and services on cloud platforms and integrating these with customer’s systems. You will be happy to work on your own initiative, while also playing an important role in ensuring the cohesion and success of the wider team.

You will have demonstrable knowledge of software development methodologies and techniques, strong analytical, troubleshooting and problem-solving skills, excellent verbal and written communication skills.

We are looking for someone who cares deeply about the code they and their team write, and is enthusiastic about clean code principles and development best practices. 

You should also be able to bridge the gap between the technical and business stakeholders, understanding the commercial drivers and KPIs our products must meet.

We are looking for candidates with experience with the following:

• AWS
• Google Cloud
• Javascript
• Node.js
• Relational databases (e.g PostgreSQL, mySql)

We are offering a competitive salary + bonus, and benefits package including:

• 10% bonus

• Help saving for your retirement - join our pension scheme and we’ll match contributions up to 6%

• 25 days’ holiday per year when you join. After three, five and ten years’ service with Reach, you’ll accrue one additional day of annual leave. We also have a Holiday Purchase Scheme

• Flexibility - This role will be split between ‘Home and Hub’ (office) giving you more flexibility to balance home and life and we’ll support you with your home set-up. The majority of time will be working from home, but you’ll need to be able to come to the office when required for face to face team or customer meetings.

• Enhanced family leave- including maternity, paternity and adoption - and you’ll be eligible after just six months’ employment

• Private Healthcare Cash Plan - free health cash plan so you can claim back cash for a range of medical expenses

• Lifestyle and shopping discounts schemes - a variety of discounts available to employees for day to day expenses, or treats!

• Wellbeing support - including a 24/7 assistance programme for you and your family, a free subscription to mindfulness app Headspace and access to free mental health coaching through Sanctus

• As one of the UK’s top 50 Inclusive Employers everyone’s invited to join our events, programmes and networks to celebrate diversity and build an environment where all our people can thrive

• We are a member of the 30% Club, a global campaign aimed at increasing gender diversity at board and senior management

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested please apply early to avoid disappointment.

Reach plc believes diversity brings benefits for our customers, our business and our people. This is why we are committed to being an inclusive employer and encourage applications from all suitable applicants irrespective of background, circumstances, age, disability, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or belief and sexual orientation.