Engineering Team Lead

About the opportunity

From maker to market, Encompass is revolutionizing how technology supports the modern beverage industry–from winemaking with our vintrace solution to beverage production and distribution with our Encompass solutions, we are unlocking new levels of growth and efficiency for our customers across the entire three-tier beverage supply chain. Join our team of technology & beverage professionals as we drive innovation and modernization in one of the world’s oldest, and most passionate industries. Your Impact Encompass is seeking a motivated and technically strong Software Engineering Lead to help guide one of our cross-functional development teams for vintrace, our industry-leading wine production software designed for future-forward producers. In this role, you will balance full people management responsibilities without stepping away from hands-on delivery. You will take ownership of leading a small team of developers and QA engineers, while contributing directly at a Senior Engineer level. This role requires excellent prioritisation and resource management skills coupled with sound technical expertise and judgement. The ideal candidate will be passionate about engineering performance, team dynamics, and modern development practices. You will collaborate closely with product teams to scope innovative initiatives, ensuring timely product releases, high-quality standards, and alignment with modern AI-enabled tooling. Additionally, you will represent your team in the cross-department planning and technical leadership forums. What You'll Do: People & Technology Leadership Lead and Mentor: Take ownership of leading a team of developers and QA engineers (typically 5-8 people), providing hands-on technical leadership and career mentorship. Grow Talent: Conduct regular 1:1s focused on technical growth and project-specific challenges, and contribute technical and soft-skills feedback into performance reviews alongside input from senior management. Shape Technical Decisions: Contribute to architectural discussions and drive the technical decision-making for your team's projects. Bring New Ideas: Research and propose new technologies or methodologies to improve team productivity and code quality, including AI-enabled tooling and agentic coding. Raise the Bar: Implement and champion best practices, while building a collaborative team environment centred on knowledge sharing, peer learning, and positive team dynamics. Hands-on Delivery Facilitate planning & delivery touchpoints: Provide technical input to inform initiative scope and resource requirements, and facilitate relevant forums and ceremonies. Prototype Solutions: Identify and prototype potential solutions for technical challenges the team faces. Keep Delivery on Track: Oversee day-to-day progress on team projects, ensuring timely completion of tasks. Champion Quality: Implement and improve quality assurance processes, including code standards and reviews, unit and acceptance testing; foster a team culture that values high quality work with frequent feedback loops. Manage Risk: Identify and mitigate technical risks that could impact project timelines or quality. What you would bring to Encompass Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience. 8+ years of overall experience in software engineering, including 1-3 years of team or technical leadership experience. A track record of successful, on-time SaaS delivery within an Agile/Scrum environment. Required Skills: Experience with cloud technologies and scalable systems Extensive proficiency in Java with strong, hands-on experience using Spring Boot. Demonstrated expertise in developing and maintaining RESTful APIs. A proven track record of using AI-enabled tooling and agentic coding to deploy high-quality production changes. Solid understanding of clean, scalable and testable architecture principles and design patterns. Strong expertise in Relational Databases (MySQL) and ORM tools (Hibernate), including query optimization. Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences and influence decision-making. Ability to manage time effectively, prioritise tasks, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment. Additional Details Location We are a remote-first organisation and are open to applicants for both hybrid and fully remote roles. Our AU corporate office is located in Melbourne, AU. Benefits and Perks With teams based across the globe, no matter where you work Encompass’ competitive benefits and perks are designed to enhance your life including: Remote-first organisation Inclusive Parental Leave program Paid Leave Program Health and wellness stipend Generous learning stipend Technology stipend Paid time fitness Employee assistance program Additional gifted leave days Our Values Our values shape the way we work together and serve our customers. They provide insight into our goals of disrupting the industry, figuring out better solutions, and doing so as part of a fast-paced, cohesive, fun-loving, and supportive team. Do the Right Thing Win Together Iterate & Learn Own It Be You BeYou@Encompass At Encompass, we aim for all of our employees to feel engaged, valued, and free to be who they are at work. We celebrate multiple approaches and points of view. We are committed to growing and empowering a diverse and inclusive community and believe that a team that works together with diverse lived experiences will strengthen our organization. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, marital status, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected status.

Responsibilities

• without stepping away from hands-on delivery.
• You will take ownership of leading a small team of developers and QA engineers, while contributing directly at a Senior Engineer level.
• This role requires excellent prioritisation and resource management skills coupled with sound technical expertise and judgement.
• The ideal candidate will be passionate about engineering performance, team dynamics, and modern development practices.
• You will collaborate closely with product teams to scope innovative initiatives, ensuring timely product releases, high-quality standards, and alignment with modern AI-enabled tooling.
• Additionally, you will represent your team in the cross-department planning and technical leadership forums.
• : People & Technology Leadership Lead and Mentor: Take ownership of leading a team of developers and QA engineers (typically 5-8 people), providing hands-on technical leadership and career mentorship.
• Grow Talent: Conduct regular 1:1s focused on technical growth and project-specific challenges, and contribute technical and soft-skills feedback into performance reviews alongside input from senior management.

Qualifications

• , and facilitate relevant forums and ceremonies.
• Prototype Solutions: Identify and prototype potential solutions for technical challenges the team faces.
• Keep Delivery on Track: Oversee day-to-day progress on team projects, ensuring timely completion of tasks.
• Champion Quality: Implement and improve quality assurance processes, including code standards and reviews, unit and acceptance testing; foster a team culture that values high quality work with frequent feedback loops.
• Manage Risk: Identify and mitigate technical risks that could impact project timelines or quality.
• What you would bring to Encompass Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 8+ years of overall experience in software engineering, including 1-3 years of team or technical leadership experience.
• A track record of successful, on-time SaaS delivery within an Agile/Scrum environment.