Backend Staff Engineer

Story Terrace Inc.; Greater London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech company in the City of London seeks an experienced Backend Staff Engineer. This role is pivotal in shaping the engineering strategy and developing AI capabilities. The ideal candidate will mentor a talented team, drive engineering efficiency, and work within a flexible hybrid model. Competitive salary range of £100K to £125K, with extensive benefits including flexible work days and enhanced parental leave.

Benefits

Work from anywhere up to 20 days a year

25 days holiday plus additional festive days

£240 yearly learning and development budget

Private Medical Insurance

Paid leave for charity or community work

Enhanced parental leave

Share options and additional bonus scheme

Qualifications

• Experience in a mentor-oriented role, fostering team growth.
• Proven track record in engineering efficiency enhancements.
• Familiarity with backend technologies and agile practices.

Responsibilities

• Mentor and coach engineers to enhance their development skills.
• Lead discussions and solve engineering challenges collaboratively.
• Define and manage both public and private APIs.

Skills

Mentoring

Engineering efficiency

Collaboration

API design

Problem solving

Communication

Optimization

Tools

Java

Python

Go

Kafka

PostgreSQL

Kubernetes

AWS

Job description

The opportunity

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Backend Staff Engineer who wants to be at the forefront of the AI revolution to help shape the future of the Engineering strategy - taking the team to the next level. You’ll help to set the direction of backend engineering, be a key person in our AI capability development by navigating everything from decision making to implementation, whilst expertly supporting engineers to balance quality, rapid delivery and value with complexity.

You’ll serve as a leader - mentoring and guiding a team of highly competent engineers, through sharing your experience, knowledge and insights…

Salary

The salary range for this role is £100K to £125K.

In person and remote working balance

We embrace a flexible hybrid work model. While we don't mandate specific office days, we ask Attesters to work on-site 2 days per week. This approach allows us to collaborate in person, while ensuring enough time remotely for deep, focussed work.

What you’ll be doing…

• Mentor and coach other engineers, helping them grow into confident developers while sharing your experience and feedback.
• Drive improvements in engineering efficiency by identifying patterns, refining tooling, enhancing CI pipelines, and streamlining processes.
• Actively lead and contribute to squad discussions, offering your expertise and insights to help solve challenges and work towards solutions.
• Collaborate with domain‑specific engineering squads to deliver key platform features, ensuring alignment with the engineering and business strategy.
• Alongside the technology leadership team, build and refine Attest’s backend software delivery processes, ensuring they are scalable and efficient.
• Lead chapter meetings with positivity and purpose, providing dedicated 1:1 time with engineers to listen, understand, and offer constructive feedback.
• Take ownership of the definition of both public and private APIs, taking a hands‑on approach to problem‑solving.
• Build upon and shape the future of our ambitious AI capability

Our tech stack includes Java (which you will be building in primarily), Python, Go, Kafka, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, and AWS and whilst we don’t need specific knowledge of these technologies, you should be familiar enough with similar tech to help get up to speed quickly. We use both external and internal AI models.

What’s in it for you…

• The opportunity to guide and mentor a number of highly talented engineers
• Play a key role in setting the direction of backend engineering as we continue to evolve our product positioning globally.
• Be part of an innovative cross‑collaborative team where your ideas and solutions are valued and implemented.
• An open, inclusive and supportive team where everyone is valued and all ideas and suggestions are welcomed.

Amazing benefits…

• Work from anywhere up to 20 days a year
• 25 days holiday per year plus additional festive days
• £240 yearly L&D budget, plus access to a larger budget for qualifications and courses
• Private Medical Insurance
• 1 day per quarter to do charity or community work
• Enhanced parental leave (18 weeks paid leave for Primary carer)
• Up to 12 weeks paid leave for premature births and neonatal care
• Paid leave for IVF and fertility treatment and pregnancy loss
• Share options and an additional bonus scheme

We’d love to hear from you, if…

You align with and actively embody our core values, which are more than just words—they are the foundation of everything we do. Our values drive our decisions, shape our culture, and define who we are as a team. Learn more about them here. Specifically this means:

• You love Embracing the Future and use data and feedback to solve problems, whether leading or from the back seat
• You are Outcome Focused by demonstrating the ability to lead and implement engineering efficiencies in a Principle, Staff, Architect role or an Engineering Manager looking to go back into a high level IC role, coming at problems with ‘First Principles’ thinking’.
• You like to Win Together, embracing and valuing all perspectives to find the best process, solution or product for a wide variety of people with differing opinions, experiences and ideas.
• You want to Win Together, leading by example and mentoring and coaching other members of the team to be successful.
• You are a confident, clear communicator - sharing the what, the why and the how of what you are thinking and doing in all directions.
• You have a passion for optimization and efficiency. You're not afraid to challenge the status quo and seek innovative solutions where they add value.
• You Embrace The Future and help

This role might not be for you if …

• You are concerned with structure, every opinion at Attest is just as loud and valid.
• You don't want to get your hands dirty in squad‑owned production code, this isn't