Technical Lead (Full Stack)

You will own our proprietary job matching technology: how it is built, how it runs and where it goes next. As our most senior engineer, you will manage our long-term offshore development team, working with our COO (product owner), with budget for AI tooling and extra capacity.

Our live stack: two job platforms (Net Zero Careers and Good Work London) on Next.js, React, Strapi and Postgres; an LLM-enriched job sourcing pipeline; agentic AI services in LangGraph and FastAPI; and analytics services.

Demand is growing fast, with new NHS, youth employment and college programmes all needing platforms soon.

Two strands, running side by side:

• Strengthen and scale (next six months). Upgrade to Strapi v5 and current Node, add testing and release practice, meet public sector security standards and launch new sites from one codebase.
• Build what comes next. Lead the design and build of our next-generation national, multi-programme platform.

What you will do

• Architecture. Own technical design: one codebase, configuration over copies, features behind flags, and documentation.
• Data pipelines and AI. Own the job sourcing pipeline and agentic AI services (Python, LangGraph, FastAPI), including data quality, LLM enrichment and evaluation.
• Security and data protection. Protect candidate data and lead work towards Cyber Essentials Plus, the NHS DSP Toolkit and UK GDPR.
• Accessibility. Make our platforms work for everyone, including mobile and assistive technology users, and meet WCAG 2.2 AA.
• Impact reporting. Own the outcomes data our funders rely on.
• Quality and reliability. Set up testing, staging, release, rollback and monitoring so a small team can ship safely.
• SEO. Own how our jobs reach candidates through Google Jobs and AI/traditional search.
• Leadership. Set engineering standards, make build/buy decisions and help hire the tech team.
• Delivery. Turn commitments into a realistic roadmap with the COO, estimate honestly and ship effectively., * Technical exercise. A take-home task on a real slice of our systems, four hours maximum, with a short design note. AI tools are encouraged; we assess how well you use them.
• Review interview. Walk our CEO and COO through your submission, then questions and a short live extension.

• 5+ years of commercial full-stack experience in JavaScript or TypeScript: Node.js, React or Next.js, and Postgres or similar. Strapi or another headless CMS is a plus.
• Working Python, confident maintaining FastAPI services and data pipelines.
• Experience putting an LLM-powered feature into production, refining it and fixing what went wrong.
• Ownership of a production system and its architectural calls.
• Technical leadership: reviewing code, setting standards and improving how a team ships, with or without the title.
• AI-first ways of working, with the judgement to know when to trust AI tools.
• Clear communication with non-technical colleagues and funders.

Nice to have

• Major framework or CMS upgrades on a live platform.
• Multi-tenant or white-label platforms from one codebase.
• Job board or skills matching platforms.
• SEO, structured data and Google for Jobs.
• Accessibility for low digital confidence or mobile-first users.
• An interest in social impact, green skills or widening access to good work.

• Pay. £60,000-£70,000 depending on experience, plus an annual performance bonus.
• Ownership. The technical direction of a growing platform.
• Sponsorship. We hold a sponsor licence and will consider applicants needing Skilled Worker sponsorship, subject to Home Office requirements.
• Where you work. Hybrid, 2-3 days a week at Somerset House, central London.
• Holiday and health. 25 days plus bank holidays; healthcare after probation; stakeholder pension.

We are GoodPeople, a fast-growing tech-focussed social enterprise. For over a decade we’ve built talent pipelines connecting employers to diverse local communities - creating real social and climate impact.

We combine our own jobs and skills platforms with in-person delivery, working with clients from the GLA and NHS to Tier 1 contractors.