Lead Software Engineer / Technical Lead

Location

Our office is located in Knoxfield (Eastern Suburbs). This is a hybrid role with a combination of office and remote work.

Build the technology platform behind one of Australia's leading precious metals businesses.

Australian Gold Capital is one of Australia's largest independent precious metals retailers, operating a national network of retail stores, online trading platforms and sophisticated internal business systems.

Our proprietary software supports inventory management, customer accounts, online trading, accounting integration, compliance, reporting and retail operations across the business.

We're entering the next phase of growth and are looking for an experienced Lead Software Engineer / Technical Lead to take ownership of our technology platform and help shape the future of the business.

This is a permanent leadership role working directly with the CEO.

About the Role

This is not a traditional software development position.

You'll inherit an established custom-built platform that supports the day-to-day operations of our business. Rather than starting from scratch, your role will be to understand the existing system, identify opportunities for improvement and guide its evolution into the next generation of our technology platform.

You'll become the technical leader responsible for improving, modernising and expanding our custom systems that operate every part of the business.

You'll work directly with the CEO, Accounts Department and an existing developer with extensive knowledge of our platform to design software that reduces manual work, improves automation and supports the continued growth of the business.

You'll also work within an established technology environment, including dedicated on-premises server infrastructure and a part-time Infrastructure Engineer responsible for networking and server administration. This allows you to focus on evolving our software platform while collaborating with the wider technology team where required.

This role isn't about sitting behind a computer writing code all day. We expect you to spend time with our Accounts Department, retail staff and management to understand how the business operates, identify inefficiencies and design software that makes everyone's job easier.

Key Responsibilities

Software Architecture

• Lead the technical direction of the business.

• Design scalable software architecture.

• Modernise and enhance our existing internal business platform.

• Reduce technical debt.

• Introduce modern engineering practices.

• Improve performance, reliability and maintainability.

• Introduce modern source control, testing and deployment practices.

• Evaluate and recommend new technologies where they provide genuine business value.

Business Systems

Design and improve systems including:

• Customer management

• Real-time precious metals pricing and trading systems

• AML/CTF compliance systems

• Customer portal

• Online customer trading platform

• Online ordering

• Inventory management

• Retail buying and selling workflows

• Internal administration

• Business reporting and dashboards

• Workflow automation

• Payment reconciliation

• Accounting software integration

• Banking integration

• Multi-store operations

• Customer due diligence and compliance workflows

• API integrations with third-party platforms

Working with the Business

Work closely with the CEO, Accounts Department and operational staff to understand how the business operates and identify opportunities to:

• Eliminate duplicate data entry.

• Automate repetitive manual processes.

• Improve financial reconciliation.

• Streamline accounting workflows.

• Improve customer onboarding and order processing.

• Improve inventory accuracy.

• Deliver better reporting and business intelligence.

• Increase operational efficiency across all retail locations.

You'll regularly spend time with staff throughout the business to understand existing workflows before designing software solutions that improve them.

Software Development

• Develop new business functionality.

• Review and improve existing code.

• Perform code reviews.

• Introduce automated testing.

• Improve deployment processes.

• Improve software quality and reliability.

Security

• Improve application security.

• Review authentication and authorisation.

• Protect customer information.

• Improve monitoring and logging.

• Assist with security reviews and remediation.

Leadership

• Collaborate with and mentor our existing software developer.

• Work closely with senior management.

• Recommend technology strategy.

• Prioritise development projects.

• Build long-term internal technical capability.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• 8+ years commercial software development experience.

• Experience designing and building business applications.

• Strong software architecture skills.

• Database design and optimisation.

• REST API development.

• Excellent problem-solving skills.

• Strong communication skills.

• Ability to understand business operations and translate them into software solutions.

Desirable

• Experience modernising legacy systems.

• PHP experience.

• JavaScript experience.

• SQL / MariaDB / MySQL.

• Linux.

• Git.

• CI/CD.

• Cloud infrastructure.

• DevOps experience.

• Experience integrating with third-party APIs and SaaS platforms.

Experience with a particular programming language is less important than your ability to design robust software systems and solve business problems.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first 12 months you will have helped deliver:

• Significant reduction in duplicate data entry.

• Automation of manual accounting processes.

• Better integration between operational systems and accounting software.

• Faster payment reconciliation.

• Improved reporting for management.

• Improved software security.

• Modern development workflows.

• Greater operational efficiency across all departments.

Why Join Australian Gold Capital?

• Work directly with the CEO.

• Influence the technology strategy of a growing national business.

• Hybrid working environment based in Knoxfield, Melbourne.

• High level of autonomy and ownership.

• Opportunity to build and lead an internal engineering team.

• Long-term career opportunity.

About You

You're someone who enjoys solving business problems rather than simply writing code.

You ask questions like:

• Why is this process manual?

• How can we automate this?

• Can this be integrated instead?

• How do we make this scalable?

• How do we build this for the next ten years?

You enjoy taking ownership, challenging the status quo and delivering software that makes a measurable impact on the business.

Your First Few Months

We don't expect you to know our business on day one.

What we do expect is curiosity.

During your first few months you'll spend time with our Accounts Department, retail teams, operations staff and management to understand how Australian Gold Capital operates.

You'll learn how our systems support the business, identify inefficiencies, question existing processes and uncover opportunities where technology can remove manual work, improve accuracy and increase efficiency.

Only once you understand how the business operates will you begin designing and implementing long-term software solutions.

Success in this role isn't measured by how many lines of code you write.

It's measured by the impact your work has on the business, the efficiency it creates for our staff, and the value it delivers to our customers.

Why You'll Enjoy This Role

This is a rare opportunity to take ownership of a mature software platform that sits at the heart of a growing national business.

You'll work directly with decision-makers, have the autonomy to influence technical direction and see the real-world impact of the solutions you build.

If you're looking for a role where your ideas matter, your work creates measurable business value and you can help shape the future of an Australian company, we'd love to hear from you.