Lead Django Developer

1 day per week in the office, locations London, Glasgow or Cardiff

Inside IR35 - Umbrella

Contact initially until the end of March 2027

Overview:

To provide hands-on technical leadership for the design, build, productization and ongoing operation of secure Django-based applications and supporting infrastructure. The role will establish the development processes, coding standards, API standards, security approach, RBAC model and application architecture needed for repeatable delivery. The developer will bring extensive experience in productionising and securing Django applications, embedding automated testing, CI/CD and agile development practices, and creating documentation to support Technical Design Authority (TDA), security assurance and operational handover.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the architecture, development and deployment of secure Django applications and associated infrastructure in Azure.
• Define and embed Django development processes, coding standards, API standards, review practices and secure engineering patterns.
• Design and guide implementation of RBAC, permissions, authentication, authorisation and secure application access models.
• Set up and improve CI/CD pipelines, automated quality controls, infrastructure-as-code and deployment practices.
• Establish repeatable automated testing approaches across unit, integration, functional and regression testing.
• Produce and assure technical documentation for TDA, security assurance, onboarding and ongoing operations.
• Collaborate with cloud architecture, security, DevOps, delivery and business stakeholders to ensure solutions meet internal standards.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership, coaching and guidance to other Django developers through design, build, test, deployment and production support.

Key Skills:

• Track record of leading application architecture, engineering standards and secure Django delivery.
• Experience designing API standards, RBAC models, permissions patterns and secure access controls.
• Experience establishing CI/CD, automated testing, code quality and secure development practices.

Desirable skills:

• Experience deploying and operating applications in Azure.
• Experience with containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes) in Azure.
• Familiarity with Azure security services (Key Vault, Managed Identities, Defender for Cloud).
• Prior experience passing TDA or similar technical assurance reviews.
• Knowledge of data protection and compliance requirements (eg, GDPR).
• Experience mentoring, onboarding or technically leading other engineers.