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Lead Product Engineer

Apply Recruitment
Department:Software Engineer
Type:REMOTE
Region:UK
Location:Manchester Area, United Kingdom
Experience:Mid-Senior Level
Skills:
PHPLARAVELAWSAI TOOLSPRODUCT THINKINGTECHNICAL DECISION-MAKINGSOFTWARE TESTINGPROBLEM SOLVING
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Job Description

Posted on: August 17, 2026

Lead Product Engineer required for a growing SaaS business building large-scale, globally used software platforms paying up to £80K + Benefits

*This is a fully remote UK role - no physical office - with regular meet-ups roughly every 6 weeks.

You'll be joining a SaaS business that is fully embracing the next generation of software delivery; where AI is already part of their software engineering workflow. This is to complement Software Engineering, not replace anyone.

Importantly for this role and SaaS product; we are looking for people and a mindset that is focused on how products are designed, built and delivered to solve the customers problem, not just best-engineering.

As Lead Product Engineer you'll need strong technical capability across PHP, Laravel and AWS, however this role is much more about product thinking, customer empathy, technical depth and having the judgement to make good engineering decisions to deliver the above.

What makes this role different?

The business has already evolved towards being an AI-first engineering model, with tools such as Cursor (currently) becoming embedded within the development workflow.

The expectation isn't that you're an AI expert or prompt engineer; we're looking for Lead Product Engineers who can use AI as a fundamental part of how you work, without being reliant on it for the technical thinking underneath.

You'll take genuine ownership of complex pieces of work from problem through to delivery, understanding not only what needs to be built, but why.

A big part of the role is being able to think beyond the ticket; understanding the customer impact, considering maintainability and performance, making sensible technical trade-offs and being confident enough to challenge an approach when you think there's a better or simpler way.

The strongest people in this environment are those who can step back from the code, understand the problem properly and then use their technical knowledge, product thinking and AI-powered tooling to deliver the right solution.

The engineering culture places a strong emphasis on quality. Building it right the first time is far more important than rushing out features and creating technical debt that needs fixing later.

We're particularly interested in people who have experience with:

  • Making technical decisions and understanding the trade-offs involved
  • Product-led engineering and customer-focused problem solving
  • Building high-quality, well-tested solutions
  • AI-assisted software delivery tools such as Cursor
  • Using AI as a fundamental part of their engineering workflow
  • Communicating technical ideas clearly with Product and non-technical people
  • Leading technical discussions and being comfortable challenging an approach if/where needed
  • PHP, Laravel and AWS development
  • Taking ownership of complex pieces of work from problem through to delivery
  • Strong software design patterns and architecture principles

The type of person who will thrive here

  • You'll be operating as a strong Product and Customer focused Software Engineer.
  • You'll enjoy speaking with customers and stakeholders, understanding the problem they're trying to solve and working out the best answer - rather than taking an already decided direction.
  • You'll be able to talk in detail about why you've made certain technical decisions, the alternatives you considered and the trade-offs involved.
  • You'll understand that technology is ultimately there to serve the product and the customer, not the other way around.
  • You'll also be naturally curious, never afraid to ask "Why?" and comfortable challenging things when you believe there's a better approach.

The team and culture

We have a fantastic relationship with this business - having worked across all key stakeholders and teams - and can confidently say this is a genuinely collaborative, supportive and forward-thinking business.

The engineering team is ambitious, highly engaged and embracing new technology in a practical way. There are no silos, plenty of opportunity to influence how things are done and a real appetite to evolve.

To find out more, click Apply and we'll be happy to share further details.

Originally posted on LinkedIn

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