Full Stack Engineer - React & Java

Computer Futures; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Computer Futures in Manchester is seeking a Contract Full Stack Engineer to build a brand-new product, combining Java/Spring Boot backend with React frontend.

You will own features from design to delivery, work with product managers and engineers, and make independent technical decisions in a hybrid Manchester environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of commercial software engineering experience.
• Strong and recent Java / Spring Boot experience.
• Frontend development experience with React.
• Experience with TypeScript/JavaScript.
• Next.js experience is highly relevant.
• Open to Vue or similar frontend frameworks if strong on React.

Responsibilities

• Designing and building new functionality using Java, Spring Boot, React and TypeScript/JavaScript.
• Working across backend services and modern frontend applications.
• Collaborating closely with Product Managers and multidisciplinary teams.
• Translating ambiguous requirements into effective technical solutions.
• Owning technical decisions from design to delivery.
• Creating RFCs and ADRs to document architecture decisions.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

React

TypeScript

JavaScript

Agile

Product teams

Tools

Next.js

Job description

Contract Full Stack Engineer | Java / React

Location: Manchester, hybrid, 2 days per week onsite
Contract: Contract
Experience: 5+ years
Tech: Java, Spring Boot, React, TypeScript / JavaScript

The Opportunity

We're working with a leading global digital organisation looking to bring on experienced Full Stack Engineers to join a team building a brand-new product from the ground up.

This is a genuine product engineering role where you'll have the opportunity to influence how solutions are designed and built. Rather than simply picking up predefined tickets, you'll work closely with Product Managers, engineers and wider stakeholders to understand requirements, challenge ideas and determine the best technical approach.

The team works across multiple locations and time zones, so they need engineers who are comfortable taking ownership, dealing with ambiguity and making independent technical decisions.

What You'll Be Doing

• Designing and building new functionality using Java, Spring Boot, React and TypeScript/JavaScript.
• Working across both backend services and modern frontend applications.
• Collaborating closely with Product Managers and multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Taking ambiguous requirements and helping shape them into effective technical solutions.
• Making engineering decisions around areas such as service design, databases, caching and application architecture.
• Evaluating different technical approaches and clearly communicating the associated trade-offs.
• Creating technical documentation including RFCs and ADRs where appropriate.
• Challenging and clarifying requirements rather than simply implementing predefined solutions.
• Taking ownership from initial requirements and technical design through to delivery.

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years' commercial software engineering experience.
• Strong and recent Java / Spring Boot experience, this is essential.
• Recent hands-on frontend development experience.
• Commercial React experience is strongly preferred.
• Experience with TypeScript and/or JavaScript.
• Next.js experience would also be highly relevant.
• Engineers coming from Vue or similar modern frontend frameworks may also be considered if they have strong frontend fundamentals and are comfortable working with React.
• Experience working within Agile, multidisciplinary product teams.
• Strong experience collaborating directly with Product Managers/Product teams.
• The ability to make independent technical decisions and explain the reasoning behind them.
• Experience designing and building new solutions/products, rather than predominantly working on migration or maintenance programmes.

What Does "Full Stack" Mean?

You don't need to be a perfect 50/50 frontend/backend engineer.

The team can consider:

• Backend-heavy Java/Spring Boot engineers with credible and recent frontend experience.
• Frontend-heavy engineers with strong enough Java/Spring Boot experience to contribute effectively on the backend.

The key requirement is that you can genuinely contribute across the stack, with Java/Spring Boot being the non-negotiable technology.

Product Engineering Experience

This is a particularly important part of the requirement.

We're looking for engineers who have experience building products as part of multidisciplinary Product and Engineering teams, rather than primarily working on legacy migrations or narrowly defined implementation tasks.

You’ll ideally be able to demonstrate:

• Experience understanding the users/customers of the products you've built.
• Working with Product Managers to establish and clarify requirements.
• Designing and building new technical solutions.
• Challenging requirements where appropriate.
• Considering multiple technical approaches before deciding on a solution.
• Making and owning technical/architectural decisions.
• Communicating the reasoning and trade-offs behind engineering decisions.
• Collaborating effectively with engineers and stakeholders across multiple teams.

The products you've worked on don't necessarily need to be externally customer-facing. Internal product experience is equally relevant.

Essential Requirements

There are several areas where the client cannot compromise:

• Strong, recent Java / Spring Boot expertise.
• Credible modern frontend development experience, ideally React.
• Genuine software/product engineering experience.
• Ability to contribute technically from day one.
• Comfortable independently owning technical decisions and solutions.
• Ability to attend the Manchester office 2 days every week.

Location

This is a hybrid Manchester-based contract, requiring attendance in the office two days every week.

The specific office days will be agreed by the team, so applicants must live within a realistically commutable distance of Manchester or be genuinely prepared to relocate.

Occasional travel to Manchester, such as once every few weeks, will not meet the requirement.