Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer

KDC Projects is seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to lead the delivery of complex software work packages within the maritime and defence sectors. This role combines deep technical software expertise with engineering leadership, stakeholder engagement, and work package ownership.

The successful candidate will be equally comfortable working within mature legacy architectures, defining technical approaches, leading multidisciplinary teams, engaging with customer SMEs and taking responsibility for delivering agreed outcomes.

This is not a pure software development role. We are looking for an individual who can bridge the gap between customer requirements, systems engineering, software delivery and verification activities whilst acting as the technical lead for a defined work package.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership

• Lead the technical delivery of software work packages from requirements through to acceptance.
• Understand and navigate large, complex, and legacy software architectures.
• Provide technical leadership to software engineers and multidisciplinary project teams.
• Support architectural decision making, design reviews and technical governance activities.
• Identify technical risks and develop appropriate mitigation strategies.

Work Package Leadership

• Own scope, delivery, quality and technical performance of assigned work packages.
• Develop work package plans, estimates and delivery strategies.
• Manage technical dependencies, assumptions and risks.
• Act as the primary technical interface between KDC and customer stakeholders.
• Support development of Statements of Work, acceptance criteria and delivery plans.
• Ensure delivery activities are aligned to customer priorities and programme objectives.

Requirements & Systems Engineering

• Support requirements capture, decomposition and traceability activities.
• Translate customer needs into deliverables
• Work closely with customer SMEs to understand operational and technical requirements.

Software Engineering

• Design, develop and review software solutions within complex engineering environments.
• Support software integration, configuration management and release activities.
• Review software quality, coding standards and technical documentation.
• Mentor and support junior and mid-level software engineers.

Verification & Validation

• Support development of verification strategies and acceptance approaches.
• Ensure software deliverables are tested and traceable back to the requirements.
• Work closely with internal and external V&V teams to support successful acceptance and certification activities.

Essential Skills & Experience:

Software Engineering

• Significant experience in software engineering leadership roles.

Strong development background using:

• C#
• .NET Framework / .NET
• Windows-based applications

• Experience working within large-scale, mature or legacy software architectures.
• Strong understanding of software lifecycle management.

Technical Leadership

• Proven experience leading technical teams and engineering work packages.
• Ability to provide direction whilst remaining hands-on when required.
• Experience managing technical delivery against customer requirements.

Systems Thinking

• Strong understanding of systems engineering principles.
• Experience working with requirements, interfaces and architecture documentation.
• Ability to understand complex multidisciplinary systems.

Stakeholder Management

• Experience working directly with customers, SMEs and programme stakeholders.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills.
• Comfortable operating in technically challenging and politically complex environments.

Desirable Experience

• Maritime, naval or defence domain experience.
• Navigation, radar, command systems or mission systems experience.
• Experience supporting regulated or certified products.
• Verification & Validation experience.
• Experience working with NATO standards, defence standards or safety-critical systems.
• Experience operating within secure environments.

Personal Attributes

The successful candidate will:

• Be highly credible with both engineers and customers.
• Holder of or eligible for full UK Security Clearance
• Demonstrate strong ownership and accountability.
• Be capable of operating with minimal supervision.
• Have the confidence to challenge assumptions whilst remaining collaborative.
• Be pragmatic, delivery focused and solutions orientated.
• Be comfortable operating within ambiguity and helping define the path forward.
• Based in Southeast England