Technical Lead (Full Stack)

Location

Hybrid – 2–3 days a week at Somerset House, central London

Hours

Full time

Salary

£60,000–£70,000 depending on experience, plus annual performance bonus

Contract

Permanent

About the Role

The Technical Lead (Full Stack) will take ownership of the technology behind GoodPeople’s growing social enterprise, strengthening its existing platforms and leading the development of its next-generation technology. You will be responsible for the architecture, development, performance and long-term direction of GoodPeople’s proprietary job matching technology, helping ensure its platforms can scale to support new programmes and growing demand.

Working closely with the Chief Operating Officer, who acts as Product Owner, you will lead the long-term offshore development team and oversee technical delivery, with budget available for AI tooling and additional development capacity.

GoodPeople’s current technology includes two job platforms, Net Zero Careers and Good Work London, built using Next.js, React, Strapi and Postgres; an LLM-enriched job sourcing pipeline; agentic AI services using LangGraph and FastAPI; and analytics services. With growing demand from NHS, youth employment and college programmes, you will help strengthen existing systems while developing a new national, multi-programme platform.

The role has two key priorities. First, you will strengthen and scale the existing platforms over the next six months, including upgrading to Strapi v5 and current Node.js versions, introducing improved testing and release processes, meeting public sector security standards and enabling new sites to launch from a shared codebase. Alongside this, you will lead the design and development of GoodPeople’s next-generation platform.

Main duties include owning the technical architecture and ensuring systems are built around a shared codebase, configuration and feature flags; managing and improving data pipelines and AI services, including LLM enrichment and evaluation; maintaining platform security and data protection standards; leading work towards Cyber Essentials Plus, the NHS DSP Toolkit and UK GDPR compliance; ensuring platforms meet WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards; managing impact reporting and outcomes data; introducing reliable testing, staging, release, rollback and monitoring processes; improving SEO and job visibility through Google Jobs and traditional and AI-powered search; setting engineering standards and making build-versus-buy decisions; supporting recruitment and development of the technical team; and working with the COO to create realistic roadmaps, estimate work and deliver projects effectively.

You will be expected to take ownership of production systems, make sound architectural decisions and ensure a small development team can deliver reliable, secure and scalable technology. Strong communication skills are essential, as you will work closely with non-technical colleagues, leadership and external stakeholders.

Requirements

Experience

• Essential: 5+ years of commercial full-stack development experience using JavaScript or TypeScript, including Node.js, React or Next.js, and Postgres or a similar database.
• Essential: Working knowledge of Python and confidence maintaining FastAPI services and data pipelines.
• Essential: Experience putting an LLM-powered feature into production, improving it and resolving issues.
• Essential: Experience owning a production system and making architectural decisions.
• Essential: Technical leadership experience, including code reviews, setting standards and improving development processes.
• Essential: Experience communicating technical concepts clearly to non-technical colleagues and stakeholders.
• Desirable: Experience with Strapi or another headless CMS.

Technical Skills and Knowledge

• Strong understanding of full-stack architecture and scalable application development.
• Experience with Python, LangGraph, FastAPI and AI-powered services.
• Understanding of data quality, LLM enrichment and evaluation.
• Knowledge of security, data protection and public sector compliance requirements.
• Experience with testing, staging, release management, rollback and monitoring.
• Understanding of SEO, structured data and Google for Jobs.
• An AI-first approach to development, with the judgement to assess when and how to use AI tools effectively.

Desirable Experience

• Major framework or CMS upgrades on live platforms.
• Building multi-tenant or white-label platforms from a shared codebase.
• Experience with job boards, recruitment technology or skills matching platforms.
• SEO and structured data implementation.
• Accessibility considerations for mobile-first users and people with low digital confidence.
• An interest in social impact, green skills or widening access to good work.

About You

You will be an experienced full-stack developer and technical leader who enjoys taking ownership of systems and shaping their long-term direction. You should be comfortable working across architecture, development, AI services, data pipelines and platform security, while supporting and guiding a development team.

You will bring a practical, delivery-focused approach, balancing technical quality with business priorities. You should be confident making independent decisions, communicating clearly with non-technical colleagues and using AI tools thoughtfully to improve the way technology is built and maintained. An interest in social impact and helping people access good work would be an advantage.

What We Offer

• Pay: £60,000- £70,000 depending on experience, plus an annual performance bonus.
• Ownership: The opportunity to shape the technical direction of a growing technology platform.
• Sponsorship: GoodPeople holds a sponsor licence and will consider applicants requiring Skilled Worker sponsorship, subject to Home Office requirements.
• Working arrangements: Hybrid working, with 2–3 days a week at Somerset House, central London.
• Holiday: 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays.
• Healthcare: Healthcare provision after probation.
• Pension: Stakeholder pension.

How to Apply

Apply with your CV and a short note explaining the system you have owned that you are proudest of, along with one technical decision you would make differently now.

The recruitment process will include:

• Screening call: A 30–45-minute conversation with the Chief Operating Officer.
• Technical exercise: A take-home task based on a real part of GoodPeople’s systems, taking no more than four hours, accompanied by a short design note. Use of AI tools is encouraged, and the assessment will consider how effectively you use them.
• Review interview: A session with the CEO and COO to talk through your submission, followed by questions and a short live extension.

GoodPeople is an equal opportunity employer. We particularly welcome applications from people from ethnic minority and global majority backgrounds, women and non-binary people, and those with lived experience of inequality. Please let us know if you require any adjustments during the recruitment process, and we will do our best to accommodate them.