Senior Software Engineer
hace 6 días
Watford
About the job Senior Software Engineer (Backend / Systems Design) We’re working with a well-established, private equity-backed technology business operating across multiple international markets. The company builds and delivers critical, high-availability systems within sectors that demand reliability, scalability and long-term performance. Following continued growth and system evolution, they are looking to strengthen their engineering team with a senior hire. This is a senior-level Software Engineer role focused on designing, building and evolving large-scale, high-capacity systems within a complex, distributed environment. The Role • Design and build scalable, event-driven and distributed systems, • Translate product requirements into robust technical solutions and architecture, • Contribute across the full development lifecycle: planning, design, implementation and optimisation, • Maintain a balance of ~70% hands-on coding and ~30% architecture, planning and collaboration, • Work closely with Product and Engineering teams to define and refine system requirements, • Ensure high standards across code quality, testing and maintainability, • Support and mentor other engineers, contributing to coding standards and best practices, • Participate in code reviews, technical discussions and continuous improvement initiatives, • Troubleshoot complex issues across the system lifecycle Tech Environment • Predominantly PHP, including legacy systems (KPHP) transitioning to Laravel, • Some C# exposure – not essential but beneficial, • Backend-focused, with rare occasional frontend interaction (non-UI heavy systems), • Event-driven architecture and distributed systems at scale What They’re Looking For • Strong fundamentals in software engineering and system design, • Experience building and scaling backend systems in complex environments, • Ability to design for performance, reliability and future scalability, • Comfortable working across legacy and modernising tech stacks, • Experience working with Product teams on requirements and planning, • Solid understanding of coding standards, testing (TDD beneficial), and software quality, • Mentoring or guiding other engineers, • Exposure to distributed systems or high-throughput environments, • Frontend experience is a bonus, not a requirement Salary & Benefits • £75,000 base salary, • 5% annual bonus, • Benefits package included Working Setup • Hybrid environment with flexibility (typically up to 3 days in office, though this varies in practice and can be less) Additional Notes • Strong emphasis on core engineering fundamentals over reliance on tooling such as AI, • Candidates should be pragmatic, collaborative and technically grounded