Job Description:

Software Team Lead

Bristol (Hybrid, minimum 2 days in the office)

Full-Time (37.5 hours per week)

Join us in making sure no one is left without a voice.

At Smartbox, our assistive technology empowers people with disabilities who experience speech difficulties to express themselves, connect with others, and live more independent lives.

We’re proud to be a global leader in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), supporting people across the UK, US, Europe, and beyond, but what truly sets us apart is our people – passionate, collaborative, and driven by the impact our products have every day.

If you’re motivated by meaningful work and want to apply your technical expertise to something that genuinely changes lives, we’d love to hear from you.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Software Team Lead to guide one of our cross-functional product teams, shaping innovative AAC solutions across Windows, iOS, and cloud-based platforms.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You’ll lead and support a talented team, while also contributing directly to the codebase, setting the standard for engineering excellence and continuous improvement.

You’ll work closely with Developers, Designers, Product Specialists, and, uniquely, our users, ensuring everything you build delivers meaningful real-world outcomes.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Lead, mentor and grow a talented team of Software Engineers and QA specialists, supporting them to do their best work.
• Collaborate with product and technical leaders to shape roadmaps, priorities and meaningful outcomes.
• Contribute directly to high-quality, scalable solutions across the full software lifecycle, including clean, maintainable C# (.NET 10) code.
• Champion modern engineering practices, including practical use of AI-assisted development tools to improve productivity and code quality.
• Build a strong, user-focused engineering culture, guided by real feedback, data and genuine needs.
• Drive agile delivery through collaborative planning, continuous improvement and shared ownership of outcomes.
• Work on complex, real-world challenges where reliability, usability and performance truly matter, and where your decisions directly impact people’s daily lives.

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for a combination of deep technical expertise, curiosity, and purpose-driven thinking.

Essential Experience:

• Proven experience leading high-performing agile software teams.
• Strong background in C#, .NET (or similar languages such as Java or C++).
• Demonstrable ability to deliver measurable user or business outcomes.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools to improve team effectiveness.
• Excellent understanding of software engineering best practices, testing, and architecture.
• Confidence working across the stack, from UI to backend systems.
• Strong communication and leadership skills, with experience developing others.

Some Areas We Often Work with Include:

• Cloud-based products, secure deployment, permissions and thoughtful resource management.
• Modern software tools and frameworks, including WPF / XAML, Avalonia, Entity Framework, SQL Server, Android, JavaScript and React.js.
• Reliable .NET build and deployment pipelines, using tools such as TeamCity, Jenkins or similar.
• AAC, assistive technology and customer-led product development, alongside coaching, people support and continuous improvement.

Why Join Smartbox:

• Purpose-driven work with real-world impact.
• Collaborative and supportive culture.
• Hybrid working and flexibility.
• Opportunities to grow, lead and shape future products.
• Strong benefits package and wellbeing support.

Inclusion and Sustainability

At Smartbox, we’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, supported and able to thrive. We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds.

If there’s anything we can do to support you during the recruitment process, please feel free to let us know within your application.

We also aim to build sustainability into everything we do, from how we design our products to how we operate as a business.

Ready To Make a Difference

If you’re excited by the idea of combining cutting-edge electronics engineering with real-world impact, we’d love to hear from you.

Apply now and help us ensure no one is left without a voice.