Tech Lead (Ruby on Rails) Engineer
Location: London (Hybrid, 2 days per week)
Salary: Up to £100,000 + Private Medical
I'm working with a fast-growing SaaS business that delivers technology used in live operational environments, supporting millions of end users across the UK and internationally.
They're looking for a highly hands-on Tech Lead Ruby Engineer to take ownership of a critical platform that sits at the heart of their product ecosystem. This is not a people management role.
Instead, it's an opportunity for someone who enjoys solving complex technical challenges, driving architectural decisions and becoming the recognised technical owner of a strategically important product area.
The platform is currently undergoing significant evolution, with a major focus on decoupling it from an existing application ecosystem to create a standalone product that can be deployed across multiple customer environments. You'll be responsible for shaping the technical direction, defining the roadmap and driving delivery from concept through to production.
Alongside the engineering challenge, this role requires someone who enjoys collaboration and communication. You'll work closely with engineers across multiple teams, partner with product and leadership stakeholders, and play an active role in demonstrating new capabilities and opportunities to both internal and external audiences.
What you'll be doing:
- Taking ownership of a business-critical Ruby on Rails platform
- Leading the architectural evolution and separation of an existing application into a standalone product
- Designing and building scalable backend services, APIs and integrations
- Driving technical decision making and acting as the primary owner for the platform
- Collaborating with engineers across multiple teams to align technical direction
- Identifying opportunities for new features, optimisation and product improvement
- Supporting product discussions with a strong commercial and customer-focused mindset
- Presenting solutions and leading technical demonstrations for stakeholders and customers where required
- Remaining highly hands-on with development while influencing longer-term strategy
What they're looking for:
- Strong commercial Ruby on Rails experience within production environments
- Experience owning and evolving complex applications or platforms
- Strong understanding of Rails architecture, APIs and system design
- Experience with PostgreSQL, Redis and Sidekiq
- AWS and containerisation experience (Docker preferred)
- Strong debugging, problem solving and architectural thinking skills
- Experience working within SaaS, B2B software or operationally critical systems
- Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
- A product-minded approach, with the ability to identify opportunities rather than simply deliver requirements
Ideal background:
- Senior Ruby Engineer looking for a genuine ownership role
- Existing Tech Lead who prefers hands-on engineering over people management
- Experience modernising legacy systems, platform separation projects or architectural transformation work
- Comfortable operating across engineering, product and customer conversations
Why this role stands out:
This is a rare opportunity to become the technical owner of a strategically important platform and genuinely shape its future. You'll have significant influence over architecture, roadmap and product direction while remaining deeply involved in the engineering work itself.
If you're looking for a role that combines technical leadership, product influence and hands-on Ruby engineering, I'd be keen to speak with you.