Job Description
If you are interested in applying for this job, please make sure you meet the following requirements as listed below.
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 xwzovoh 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