Job Description

I'm looking for a Lead Backend Software Engineer to shape backend architecture, drive engineering excellence, and guide teams building high‑performance digital products used at scale. This is a hands‑on leadership role where you’ll influence technical strategy, mentor engineers, and ensure backend systems are robust, secure, and future‑ready.

What you’ll be doing

Lead backend architecture – Define and evolve scalable, secure, high‑performance backend systems

Set engineering standards – Champion best practices, secure coding (OWASP), and high‑quality delivery

Hands‑on technical contribution – Support critical backend work and review complex code

Guide teams & mentor engineers – Facilitate design discussions, code reviews, and technical decision‑making

Improve tooling & CI/CD – Enhance pipelines, build processes, and operational workflows

Drive continuous improvement – Reduce technical debt and introduce modern backend approaches

Support compliance – Ensure systems align with standards such as ISO27001 and PCIWhat we’re looking for

Strong backend engineering experience with Java (11+) & Spring Boot

Event‑driven architecture expertise – Kafka or similar

Cloud experience – ideally AWS; Kubernetes knowledge beneficial

Deep understanding of microservices, REST APIs & distributed systems

Experience with SQL/NoSQL databases

Strong CI/CD, automated testing & DevOps awareness

Ability to influence technical direction across teams

Comfortable communicating technical risks to non‑technical stakeholdersHybrid working- London or Newcastle

3 month rolling contract 

Outside IR35