We’re expanding our engineering team and looking for a Technical Product Lead to help take Zinc to the next level. In this role, you’ll be a true player-coach building high-quality features hands-on (around 60% of your time), while mentoring and leading engineers (around 40%), and owning a core product area to keep it operating at peak performance..

You’ll work closely with Product and the wider business to shape not just what we build, but how we build it — ensuring technical excellence, scalability, and long-term success. As the voice of engineering across teams, you’ll help communicate new features, align priorities, and set a high bar for delivery and collaboration.

This is a role for someone who combines strong technical depth with confident leadership – and wants to make a lasting impact on both our platform and our people as we scale.

Department: Tech – Engineering
Employment Type: Full Time
Location: Zinc – London
Workplace type: Hybrid
Compensation: £85,000 / year
Reporting To: Sanjeev Ponnapula

Key Responsibilities 🗝️

Driving projects & productivity 🚀 – Lead technical initiatives, ensuring your team delivers high-quality, impactful work on time.

Player-coach leadership 👥 – Balance coding (60%) with management (40%), including running 1:1s, performance reviews, and mentoring two direct reports.

Owning your product area 🎯 – Take high ownership of your product’s performance, stability, and long-term maintainability.

Cross-team communication 🛠️ – Partner with Product, Customer Success, and Account Management to explain new features and technical decisions, through presentations, Q&As, and tailored updates.

Team onboarding & growth 🌱 – Support smooth onboarding for new engineers, helping them ramp up quickly and feel set up for success.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise 🚀

Hard Skills ⚡

Full Stack Development 💻 – Strong experience building backend services using TypeScript, Node.js, with hands-on experience developing and integrating frontend features using Vue.js and/or React.

Cloud & Infrastructure ☁️ – Experience with AWS and cloud-native systems.

Database Knowledge 📂 – NoSQL expertise, particularly with document-based databases.

System Maintenance 🏗️ – Proven ability to keep systems performant, scalable, and reliable over time.

Soft Skills ✨

Great Communicator 🗣️ – Able to clearly explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Pragmatic & Ownership-Driven 🎯 – Makes sound decisions balancing speed, quality, and long-term impact.

Problem Solver 🧠 – Navigates ambiguity, finds solutions, and unblocks others.

Empathetic Leader ❤️ – Builds trust with direct reports, supports their growth, and fosters a positive team culture.

What we offer 🍉

Zinc offers a chance to work on a product that brings a fresh perspective on data ownership in hiring

24 days holiday + Bank Holidays + your birthday off 🎉
£1200 annual benefits allowance (ThanksBen, from month 2)
Early finish Fridays (16:00)
Yearly company retreat abroad ✈️
30 days to Work from anywhere 🌍
Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, and Adoption Leave (2 months full pay, then statutory)
Statutory pension with NEST (3% employer, 5% employee)
Zinc shares, issued through the EMI Scheme
Unlimited access to MoreHappi coaching
Company socials, quarterly team socials Free Monday lunches
Nursery workplace benefit scheme (Yellownest)
Option to lease an electric car through Electric Car Scheme
Celebrated Zinc anniversaries 🥳

About Zinc

Who we are ⚡

Zinc builds automated reference and background checking tools designed to improve candidate experience and set new industry standards. Founded in 2017 by a team with extensive HRTech experience, Zinc is an early-stage startup rapidly growing as it redefines efficiency, transparency, and fairness in background checks.

📚Read more about our story here: https://zincwork.com/mission

We’re a culture first company, by this we don’t just mean an active calendar of both company and team organised events 🍔🍻🎯 (which we do have 🤩),Zinc’s culture is defined by a respectful and autonomous approach to all employees, fostering support for new ideas, promoting a flexible work environment, and operating within a flat structure. While socials, lunches, and events enhance the experience, the core of Zinc’s culture drives employees to embrace innovation, share successes, and feel motivated about the company’s future.

🪴We recently redefined our company values:

🧩The pieces that make Zinc: Pragmatic, Integrity, Empathy, Collaborate, Empowered, Speed.

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Our Hiring Process

Stage 1:

Applied

Stage 2:

Review

Stage 3:

Talent Discovery Call ✨

Stage 4:

Google Meets Interview 💻

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Technical Product Lead

Key Responsibilities 🗝️

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise 🚀

What we offer 🍉

About Zinc

Our Hiring Process

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