Consultant Software Engineer – Career Switchers and Returners 2026This role is for career switchers or returners looking to blend high-level software engineering with strategic client advisory. Our consultant engineers act as technical partners to our clients, helping them transform their businesses through domain expertise and, increasingly, AI-driven solutions.
As a consultant engineer at Softwire, you’ll be part of a bright, inclusive, supportive team. You will work directly with our customers to solve some of their biggest challenges, making a genuine difference to people’s lives, businesses and society along the way.
Is your CV ready If so, and you are confident this is the role for you, make sure to apply asap.
Interspersed with the project work, you’ll benefit from structured training that equips you for a long and fulfilling career in the digital world.
Working here, your opportunities are virtually limitless, with a wide variety of career paths open to you, both technical and non-technical. Both our current and our previous managing directors are alumni of our entry level programme.
Months 1-2: Software engineering induction.
Our training programme gets you up-to-speed with the skills you need to thrive as a professional digital engineer. You’ll get a grounding in coding, source control, modern technology stacks, and more. You’ll then form a team with your fellow new starters to develop a piece of software, typically for a not-for-profit organisation or to be used within Softwire. Under the guidance of experienced engineers, you’ll learn what it takes to deliver commercial-grade software.
The induction includes training in AI-assisted development. You will learn to oversee and refine AI-generated code, reflecting a shift in the coding world from manual creation to high-level oversight. This training ensures you can leverage AI for maximum efficiency while focusing on architectural challenges and client value.
With your first project complete, you’ll join one of our teams delivering a client project, usually in our offices but sometimes on a customer site. You’ll get plenty of support throughout, surrounded by helpful colleagues and industry experts to answer all your questions. And with continual peer review of your work, your software engineering skills will quickly rise to new levels. Alongside your project work, you’ll continue to attend our in-house training programme . This industry-leading course lasts six weeks in total, spread over 12 months. It broadens your knowledge in key aspects of professional software engineering, including:
- Development methodologies
- Additional technologies
You will move beyond simply doing what is asked; you will advise clients on the best course of action using your domain knowledge. As AI handles more of the routine coding, your role will focus on architectural oversight and strategic partnership.
Month 16 and beyond: Choose your career path
We continue to invest in your development and promote from within. Many of our senior staff joined at entry level and have followed a range of career paths. And, as the individuals we’ve highlighted below show, you’ll quickly get opportunities to take on added responsibility. You might decide you love leading project delivery. You might enjoy overseeing a technology team. You may find consulting is your passion. You could choose to specialise in areas such as design, or data science and artificial intelligence.
Zoe joined our entry level intake in 2000. She’s since worked in virtually every part of the business, including delivery management, recruitment, operations management and sales, before becoming managing director, aged 33.
Harry Cummings
Part of the 2008 cohort, Harry joined as a coder, before starting to oversee development teams as a technical lead. He then joined our Advisory division, where he’s now a lead consultant, helping customers shape their technical solutions and delivery processes.
Ying was one of our 2012 entry level intake. Working initially as a software engineer, she quickly started taking on project management responsibilities. She’s now one of our senior delivery leads, ensuring we meet our targets around budget, timeframe and client satisfaction
The people we are looking for
- A passion for solving real-world challenges: First and foremost, you’ll get a buzz from building things that make a difference to businesses, people and society. We also want to see passion for coding – any experience you have is a bonus
- A consultancy mindset: You are genuinely excited about working with customers to solve their problems. You’ll need to be comfortable in new environments, quickly building relationships with new clients to get to the heart of their businesses and their needs. You are confident discussing technical ideas with people with varying degrees of digital literacy, communicating clearly with any audience
- A positive, can-do team player: You love pushing the team to greater heights by helping colleagues out wherever you can. You always look to improve yourself and others. Your default answer to a question is ‘yes’, and you make big problems seem small
- Extreme STEM skills: We are looking for exceptional logical analysis and reasoning capabilities
The benefits package
Starting salary of £45,000
50% of company profits paid as profit share
25 days annual holiday with the option to buy or sell, plus charity days
Generous maternity, paternity and adoption pay
Consistently one of the best places to work in the UK*
Dedicated budget for staff activities and entertainment
Great offices, plus free on-site gym and subsidised restaurant in London
A workplace that promotes diversity and inclusivity
We know how much effort you put into your application, so we always aim to get back to you within two working days at each stage. And if you are asked to interviews, you can choose your own timeslots, using our online booking system. Interviews are conducted remotely with the exception of the final interview which is an in-person group assessment day.
We typically offer various start dates in the spring and autumn and allocate places to successful applicants on a first-come, first-served basis. We recommend applying early to secure your preferred start date.
More about Softwire: What you’ll be part of
Our mission is to solve our customers’ business challenges using technology. This often demands creativity, tackling complex issues in intelligent ways, to help organisations streamline operations and better serve their customers and users.
We played an important role in the Moorfields Eye Hospital/DeepMind collaboration , which demonstrated how artificial intelligence could help doctors fast-track patients with serious eye diseases. We built the system that runs the BBC Live Events websites , sharing content from Glastonbury, the Reading and Leeds festivals, and the BBC Proms. We’ve been the long-term digital partner for David Lloyd Leisure, building its mobile app, booking system and numerous other capabilities. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Find out what else we’ve been involved with .
Of course, there’s more to Softwire than building software. We’re working hard to nurture a diverse, inclusive and supportive culture, where people love what they do and feel inspired by working with some of the best minds in the business. xwzovoh We also have a generous budget for a varied programme of staff events and activities, with employees, not management, deciding how the money is spent.
We believe we’re the best company in the UK to work for and we have awards and review scores to prove it. Check us out on Glassdoor or Best Companies .
If you do not meet the criteria for this role please apply for one of our other roles .
…