About the Role
We're looking for an experienced Backend Engineer to build scalable, reliable, high-performance Back End services.
You'll pick up an existing distributed system quickly, deliver new features independently, and troubleshoot production issues.
What You'll Do
- Design, build, and maintain Back End services
- Develop REST and/or GraphQL APIs
- Build reliable, observable, resilient distributed systems
- Write clean, well-tested Java code
- Troubleshoot production issues and find root causes
- Improve reliability, performance, and scalability
- Join design discussions and code reviews
- Support CI/CD and engineering best practices
Must Have
- 3+ years of professional Java development
- Strong Java and Spring Boot skills
- REST API experience
- Distributed systems and microservices
- Kubernetes
- Kafka or similar messaging
- Relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL)
- Unit and integration testing
- Strong debugging skills
- Observability and monitoring tools
- CI/CD pipelines
- Understanding of scalability, reliability, and fault tolerance
- Ability to learn an existing architecture fast and deliver independently
Nice to Have
- GraphQL
- Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
- SLOs, SLIs, and error budgets
- A/B testing platforms
- High-traffic consumer systems
- Performance tuning and JVM optimization
Who We Want
- Productive within your first few weeks
- Comfortable in large, existing codebases
- Strong fundamentals and pragmatic decisions
- Excellent debugging and communication skills
- Comfortable with Claude/Codex, Agile, and delivering with minimal supervision
- Realistic with estimates and quick to flag risks early
Rate:
Not specified
Location:
Manchester
IR35 Status:
Not specified
Remote Status:
Hybrid
Industry:
IT
Seniority Level:
Mid-Level