TECHNICAL LEAD - RESTAURANT ORDERING

OVERALL PURPOSE

Lead the people, engineering and delivery of our Restaurant Ordering team - the team behind the technology every restaurant relies on to take and process an order.

If a restaurant can't take an order, it's on us.

You'll own how the team runs and delivers, set its technical direction and line-manage a mixed team of software and ePOS engineers.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You'll review work, pair with engineers and get stuck into the harder problems, while owning the bar for quality, resilience and security. You'll mostly drive this through the team rather than sitting on the critical path yourself.

You might already lead a team, or you might be a senior engineer with a strong mentoring track record who is ready to step into formal leadership.

Either way, we care that you build a team that is kind, high-performing and safe to be honest in.

THE RESTAURANT ORDERING TEAM

We look after the tills, back-of-house computers, kitchen screens and card payment hardware in every restaurant, as well as the POS menu and pricing data that feeds them.

We manage how NCR's Aloha POS is configured, deployed and upgraded, and own the card payment integration with Stripe across the UK and Ireland.

Our automation keeps hundreds of restaurants running with minimal on-site technical support. This includes standard machine images, packaged software, Ansible to build and upgrade sites remotely, and a self-service portal for our Service Desk.

We also run estate monitoring and alerting, including cold-room temperature sensors that help protect food safety.

We're now growing further into IoT, turning data from connected devices and sensors into monitoring and reporting that helps restaurants run smoothly.

Our stack includes TypeScript, Golang, Ansible and PowerShell, with services on Google Cloud managed through Terraform and Azure DevOps, data in BigQuery and Looker, telemetry in Coralogix, and n8n for workflow automation.

STAKEHOLDERS

• Head of Engineering and Architecture and Head of Product and Delivery in the Operations delivery group
• Product Managers within the Operations group
• Operations, Service Desk, Food Safety and Finance teams
• The Kitchen Management System (NKMS) team
• NCR, Stripe and other third-party vendors

RESPONSIBILITIES

Running the team and delivery

• Own how the team runs, including stand-ups, planning and backlog management.
• Represent the team at the weekly delivery forum.
• Balance live-service support against project delivery, keeping restaurants trading while continuing to move the roadmap forward.
• Spot blockers and delivery risks early, making the calls needed to keep the team moving.

Technical direction and architecture

• Own the architecture and technical direction of our products and restaurant technology estate.
• Understand how our services and platforms connect with NCR, Stripe and the Kitchen Management System.
• Shape the team's move into IoT and drive automation that reduces manual and on-site work.
• Bring considered recommendations on new tools and approaches, moving the team's engineering forward without chasing novelty for its own sake.

Quality, resilience and security

• Own the bar for engineering quality, reliability and security across everything the team ships.
• Champion safe change. A poor release can stop restaurants trading, so staged rollouts, rollback plans and effective change control are essential.
• Lead incident response and run blameless post-mortems, turning incidents into learning and lasting improvements.
• There is no formal on-call rota, but you may occasionally need to respond when significant incidents occur.
• Champion monitoring and observability that help identify problems before they affect restaurant trade.
• Build security in by design, including the security considerations associated with card payments and restaurant technology.
• Maintain strong standards across testing, automation and code quality.

Leading and developing the team

• Line-manage engineers and technicians through regular one-to-ones, clear feedback and development plans.
• Support clear growth paths for both software and ePOS engineering disciplines.
• Coach and mentor people at every level, with particular care for junior team members building their foundations.
• Build a culture that is kind, accountable and safe to be honest in.
• Play a leading role in hiring and in building a strong and diverse team over time.

Working across the business

• Bring engineering into product conversations early, including feasibility discussions, estimates and technical discovery.
• Work closely with Operations, Service Desk, Food Safety and Finance, explaining technical choices and trade-offs clearly.
• Surface risks and dependencies early, particularly across the seams with the Kitchen Management System team.
• Work with key vendors such as NCR and Stripe, helping hold them to their commitments alongside Product and Delivery.
• Contribute to the wider engineering community at Nando's, sharing knowledge, patterns and approaches that raise the bar for everyone.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

We're looking for someone who has:

• Strong technical breadth across cloud services, Windows machine management and application code, with enough depth to review work and make sound technical decisions.
• Experience with TypeScript or Golang.
• Experience with infrastructure and automation as code, using technologies such as Terraform, Ansible and PowerShell.
• A strong, demonstrable track record of mentoring and coaching, with real examples of people you've helped grow.
• Experience owning how a team plans and delivers while balancing live-service support alongside roadmap work.
• A strong understanding of engineering quality and resilience, including testing, observability, change control and learning from incidents.
• A practical secure-by-design mindset.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain technical decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical colleagues.

You might also have:

• Formal line-management experience. This is helpful, but not essential if you have a strong track record of mentoring and coaching and are ready to step into formal leadership.
• Experience with retail or hospitality POS systems such as NCR Aloha - a strong advantage.
• Experience supporting an estate of hundreds of sites with limited on-site technical capability.
• Experience with payment terminals or payment integrations.
• Experience with IoT, connected devices or sensor data.

YOU ARE

• Kind, empathetic and genuinely energised by growing people.
• Calm and clear-headed about trade-offs, particularly when a live issue is affecting restaurant trade.
• A strong communicator who can make technical decisions clear and understandable.
• Passionate about the restaurant side of the Nandoca experience.
• Comfortable balancing technical quality, restaurant impact and team capacity.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME

At Nando's, we know our best work comes from teams that reflect the full range of people we serve.

Inspired by our Southern African heritage, we're committed to building an inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole self to work, regardless of background, identity or life experience.

If you're excited about this role but don't meet every single point above, please apply anyway.

We care far more about your values, your curiosity and how you lead people than whether your CV ticks every box. Skills can be grown; the right mindset is what we're really looking for.

We'll consider any reasonable adjustments to support you through the recruitment process - just let us know what you need.

#LI-DNI