Technical Lead

Job Title: Technical Lead

Location: Liverpool City Centre HQ / Hybrid (3 days in office)

Salary: £70,000 - £85,000 per annum, depending on experience

Job Type: Permanent, Full Time

Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday

We're looking for a Tech Lead to guide a talented, cross-functional squad as they design, build and deliver products that make a real difference for our customers.

You'll lead a team made up of backend and frontend developers, QA and automation testers, designers, product managers and business analysts. Together, you'll create and evolve high-quality software using modern engineering practices and a microservice architecture built on Azure.

As Tech Lead, you'll be hands-on with the code while supporting others to grow. You'll set technical direction, drive standards and help shape how your squad works, with real autonomy and trust. You'll collaborate closely with the Architecture Team to ensure your services fit seamlessly into our broader platform and long-term technical strategy.

We work together in our Liverpool HQ three days a week because collaboration, quick feedback and creative problem-solving are key to how we deliver.

Your Impact:

The systems you'll design, and lead will power key parts of our products, used by thousands of customers every day. Your technical decisions will directly influence product quality, performance and customer experience. You'll help your team deliver features that are reliable, scalable and genuinely improve how people interact with our services.

What You'll Do:

• Lead a multidisciplinary squad to deliver high-quality, production-ready software
• Design and build scalable microservices in .NET and Azure
• Contribute to the evolution of our microservice architecture and integration patterns
• Collaborate with frontend developers working in React and Next.js to deliver seamless user experiences
• Partner with product managers, BAs and designers to translate customer needs into clear technical plans
• Work closely with QA and automation testers to ensure quality and reliability are built in from the start
• Stay hands-on with code while mentoring developers and promoting best practices
• Drive technical discussions, champion clean architecture and improve our engineering standards
• Contribute to wider engineering initiatives, including developer experience and shared tooling

Our Tech Stack:

Backend: C#, .NET 8.0, Redis, MongoDb, SQL Server, Entity Framework, MassTransit, Mediator

Frontend: React, Next.js, TypeScript

Infrastructure: Azure, Docker, Kubernetes (AKS), Nginx, RabbitMQ

Architecture: Microservices, Event-driven patterns, Clean Architecture

Observability and Monitoring: Grafana, Loki, Sentry, PostHog

Tooling and Practices: Git, CI/CD pipelines, Agile methodologies

What We're Looking For:

• Proven experience leading software delivery within a microservice-based environment
• Strong technical background in .NET and Azure
• Comfortable working across the stack, with deeper expertise in backend systems
• Experience mentoring and guiding developers in a collaborative, agile setup
• Product-focused mindset with an understanding of trade-offs between speed, scalability and user experience
• Excellent communicator who brings clarity and empathy to technical discussions
• Passion for clean, maintainable code and continuous improvement
• Curious and proactive, always looking for better ways to build, measure and deliver

Why Join Us:

• Real autonomy to shape how your squad designs, builds and delivers software
• A modern, cloud-native architecture that encourages experimentation and ownership
• Work with talented developers, designers, testers and product professionals who care about what they build
• Influence technical decisions that shape the direction of our products and platforms
• Opportunities to grow into staff, principal or architecture-focused leadership roles
• A supportive, transparent culture where craftsmanship, curiosity and learning are celebrated
• Regular opportunities for professional development, conferences and innovation time

A Few Things to Know Before You Apply

Checks & Clearances

All roles at Acorn are subject to DBS and financial checks. Any offer we make will be conditional until these are completed to a satisfactory standard.

Visa Requirements

Because our training is quite comprehensive, we can only consider applicants who have at least one year remaining on their Graduate or Post-Study Work visa. At the moment, we're not able to offer visa sponsorship.

We're Here to Support You

We're committed to creating an inclusive, supportive workplace where everyone can flourish. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process-or once you're part of the team-just let us know. Whether it's flexible hours, adapted equipment, or a bit of extra support, we'll work with you to make sure you can do your best work.

Candidates with experience or relevant job titles of; Technical Lead, Technical Team Lead, Technical Engineering Lead, Lead Programmer, Lead Software Engineer, Technical Architect, Solutions Architect, Technical Project Manager, Technical Manager may also be considered for this role