Role : Lead Engineer (I)
Reporting To : Lead Engineer (II)
Salary : £95,000 – £110,000 dependent on experience
Working Location : Hybrid/ London (2 days a week on site at our Old Street office)
Please note this role is for our sister product, Buildscout, not Searchland.
🏢 About Buildscout
Buildscout is revolutionising lead generation for the UK construction industry. We use real-time planning application data to help contractors, developers, and tradespeople secure high‑quality, location‑specific jobs before the competition and with minimal hassle.
We deliver reliable, guaranteed leads, automate the entire outreach process — from planning data filtering to sending conversion‑optimised letters and follow‑ups, and provide a user-friendly dashboard to track campaigns and measure ROI in real time
Buildscout is backed and supported by Searchland, the UK’s leading B2B prop-tech company transforming how businesses and individuals’ access and leverage property data. This role will be reporting to Buildscout’s Lead Engineer
💻 About The Role
We’re looking for a Lead Full-Stack Engineer who thrives on building – someone who wants to own meaningful technical problems end-to-end and ship great products every day. You’ll be a key technical voice on a small, high-output team, working closely with our Lead Engineer and product teams to drive quality and pace across the Buildscout platform.
This is primarily a hands-on role. You’ll spend the majority of your time in the codebase, solving complex engineering challenges, improving performance, and helping set the bar for how we build. You’ll also contribute to technical direction and occasionally mentor peers – but deep individual contribution is at the heart of this position.
🎯 What You’ll Do
- Write high-quality, production-ready code across the full stack daily
- Build performant, accessible features using Next.js, tRPC, React + Tailwind
- Own PostgreSQL schema design, migrations, and query performance
- Work alongside our data team on Elasticsearch-driven search and filtering architectures
- Take complex features from discovery through to deployment and monitoring
- Partner closely with product and design to shape features with strong technical input
- Translate technical constraints and opportunities into clear language for non-technical teammates
- Occasionally support and guide more junior engineers through code review and pairing
🎯 Essential Experience
- Right to work in the UK – we cannot offer sponsorship for this role
- 7+ years in software engineering with at least 2–3 years in a lead, staff, or senior-plus role
- Demonstrable experience building and scaling SaaS platforms
- Strong experience with our stack (or strong adjacent experience):
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Frontend: React, Tailwind
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Backend: Next.js, Node.js, tRPC
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Databases: PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch
- Experience leading technical architecture or system design initiatives
Interview Process
Stage 1: 20 minute introductory call with HR Team
Stage 2: Take home technical test and submission
Stage 3 : Live coding session building on take home test with one of our Lead Engineers
Stage 4 : In person technical test with our Chief Technology Officer
🌟 Why Join Us?
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💰 Reward & Ownership – We believe in sharing our success with the people who help build it. We offer all the team an EMI employee share scheme, and a salary sacrifice pension
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🌴 Time Off – Rest properly. 37 days off in total, including your birthday and a full Christmas shutdown
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🏡 Flexibility & Equipment – we offer flexible and hybrid working as well as WFH equipment provided so you can work well no matter the where
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📈 Growth & Development – We invest in your progression with a £500 annual fund to spend on courses, conferences or qualifications.
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❤️ Health & Wellbeing – Your health matters. We cover it – physically, dentally and mentally with Vitality private healthcare
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🎉 Culture & Perks – We work hard and we celebrate together – food, fun and plenty of team moments including a monthly free lunch and team activities & events
🌍 Our Commitment to Inclusion
We are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace where everyone feels valued and empowered to thrive. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion, or any other characteristic. If you require any adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know – we are happy to support you.
