Lead Back End Engineer
2 days ago
City of London
About the job Reporting to a Software Engineering Manager or Head of Engineering, we are seeking a Lead Back End Software Engineer to be the go-to authority for backend engineering, setting the technical vision, guiding architecture, and driving improvements in tools, processes, and delivery practices. You’ll remain hands-on for critical work, but your greatest impact will come from technical leadership, enabling teams to deliver robust, scalable, and secure services. With a strong foundation in backend technologies, including Java and Spring Boot, and event-driven systems such as Kafka, you’ll influence systems well beyond your own code, ensuring architectural integrity and high engineering standards across multiple teams. You’ll play a pivotal role in aligning technical strategy with business goals and ensuring our backend capabilities are future-ready. ___ ✨ 📝 What You'll Be Doing… Technical Leadership • Define and evolve backend architecture to ensure scalability, maintainability, and performance., • Set coding standards and champion secure development practices (e.g. OWASP)., • Influence technology choices, frameworks, and tools to support engineering excellence., • Oversee improvements to CI/CD pipelines, build processes, and operational workflows., • Can clearly and confidently articulate risk of technical problems to non technical stakeholders (e.g legal, product owner, designer), • Leads projects and features to good outcomes, ensuring appropriate engineering decisions are made to factor in technical debt, systems design, stability/reliability, monitoring/observability and business need. Hands-On Guidance • Contribute to key backend systems when your expertise is needed., • Review and refine critical code, ensuring alignment with architectural goals and best practices., • Provide technical oversight for major initiatives, ensuring architectural soundness. Mentoring & Collaboration • Coach, mentor, and develop engineers, raising capability across the backend discipline., • Facilitate design discussions, code reviews, and collaborative problem-solving sessions., • Build consensus for architectural and technical decisions across teams and stakeholders. Check out the full details, including day-to-day duties and responsibilities on our website: ___ Check out the full details, including day-to-day duties and responsibilities on our website: 🤩We’d love to hear from you if… • You have strong backend engineering experience, ideally including Java (Java 11+) and Spring Boot., • You have proven ability to design and lead backend architectures for complex systems., • You are familiar with cloud environments (AWS is mandatory) and container orchestration (Kubernetes)., • You are experienced in event-driven architectures and messaging platforms such as Kafka., • You have strong understanding of RESTful APIs, microservices, and distributed system design., • You have knowledge of SQL and NoSQL databases., • You are experienced in CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern deployment practices., • You are a skilled mentor with the ability to influence technical direction across teams., • You have strong problem-solving skills, balancing technical, product, and delivery considerations., • You are comfortable in agile environments using Git-based SCM and tools like Jira or Redmine., • You are aware of compliance frameworks such as ISO27001 and PCI. 🙌What’s in it for you? 🌴Annual Leave – 23 days holiday, plus all bank holidays, increasing by 1 day per year of service, after 3 years (up to 29 days), Birthday Day-Off, Extra day-off over Christmas, Annual volunteer day. 💰Recognition & Rewards - Annual Performance Bonus and Profit Share Scheme, Tech Loan, Length of Service rewards – 5 & 10 year clubs! 📍Hybrid Working (2-4 days per month office-based minimum) either in our London or Newcastle office; 💸Group Income Protection ❤️Life Insurance 💰Salary Sacrifice Pension, with 5% employer contribution match 🏃🏽Health & Wellbeing - Employee Assistance Programme, 24/7 Smart Health GP Access, Cycle to Work scheme, Bi-Annual Health Check 🌎 Digital Nomad policy – allowing you to work from anywhere for 4 weeks per year. 📚 Growth and Development – Relevant individual training budget and the opportunity to grow within a dynamic and supportive team. 👌Generous refer a friend scheme. ➕ Plus lots more! ___ About us We have an open, supportive, dynamic culture where talented people are trusted to contribute to the team and company by carrying out their roles in a professional, collaborative, and skilled manner. We value the expertise of our team members and offer opportunities for personal development and career progression within the company. 👉If this is the opportunity you have been waiting for, to work in a fast-paced company with innovative products and cutting-edge technology, please apply now. 📢The candidates must be eligible to work in the UK as no visa sponsorship can be provided.