Lead Software Engineer | Outside IR35 | Remote

Lead Software Engineer | Outside IR35 | Remote
AI MVP Delivery | Public Sector | Contract

SR2 is supporting a public sector organisation delivering an AI readiness programme, focused on taking an existing proof of concept through to a fully testable MVP.
This role will lead the engineering delivery of an AI use case, working closely with multi-disiplinary team, while hands-on building, shaping and assuring the technical solution.

The Role
You'll be responsible for end-to-end delivery of an AI-enabled service, leading a small engineering team and owning technical decisions from design through to operation. The focus is on iterative delivery, building a new UI, and integrating AI capabilities into a secure, scalable platform.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of an AI MVP from proof of concept to user testing
• Line-lead and mentor a small team of software engineers
• Collaborate with data scientists on AI capability integration
• Design and implement cloud-native, containerised architectures
• Own technical decisions, delivery outcomes, and engineering standards
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for software and infrastructure
• Work closely with UCD to deliver accessible, user-focused interfaces

Essential

• 5-10+ years' experience as a Full Stack Software Engineer
• Strong experience across languages such as Python, R, TypeScript
• Proven delivery in cloud environments (AWS or Azure)
• Kubernetes experience, including architectural and design patterns
• Experience building greenfield CI/CD pipelines
• Ownership of full service life cycle from design to live
• Strong Agile delivery experience
• Experience leading and mentoring engineers
• Consultancy or client-facing delivery experience

Desirable

• Experience with RedHat OpenShift or hybrid cloud platforms
• Exposure to MLOps pipelines and processes
• Experience building UIs using a design system
• Public sector delivery experience
• Healthcare or complex organisational environments

The Details

• Contract role - outside IR35
• Remote
• £500-£550p/d
• 1-stage interviews

If you're a Lead Software Engineer with strong cloud and delivery experience and want to play a key role in taking an AI product into live user testing, please apply for immediate consideration.