Lead Back End Engineer

ZipRecruiter; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A technology company is seeking a Lead Backend Software Engineer to provide technical leadership and drive improvements in backend engineering practices. You will oversee architecture and ensure the delivery of scalable, secure services, collaborating closely with teams. The ideal candidate has substantial experience with Java, Spring Boot, and AWS, along with a proven ability to impact technical direction. Join us for a rewarding role offering hybrid working and extensive benefits.

Benefits

Annual Leave – 23 days plus bank holidays

Annual Performance Bonus

Profit Share Scheme

Hybrid Working

Health & Wellbeing Program

Training budget for personal development

Qualifications

• Proven ability to design and lead backend architectures for complex systems.
• Experienced in CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern deployment practices.
• Skilled mentor with the ability to influence technical direction across teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve backend architecture to ensure scalability, maintainability, and performance.
• Coach, mentor, and develop engineers, raising capability across the backend discipline.
• Lead projects and features to ensure appropriate engineering decisions are made.

Skills

Backend engineering experience

Java (Java 11+)

Spring Boot

Cloud environments (AWS)

Container orchestration (Kubernetes)

Event-driven architectures

Messaging platforms (Kafka)

RESTful APIs

Microservices

SQL and NoSQL databases

Tools

Git-based SCM

Jira or Redmine

Job description

Overview

Reporting to a Software Engineering Manager or Head of Engineering, we are seeking a Lead Backend Software Engineer to be the go-to authority for backend engineering, setting the technical vision, guiding architecture, and driving improvements in tools, processes, and delivery practices. You’ll remain hands-on for critical work, but your greatest impact will come from technical leadership, enabling teams to deliver robust, scalable, and secure services.

With a strong foundation in backend technologies, including Java and Spring Boot, and event-driven systems such as Kafka, you’ll influence systems well beyond your own code, ensuring architectural integrity and high engineering standards across multiple teams. You’ll play a pivotal role in aligning technical strategy with business goals and ensuring our backend capabilities are future-ready.

What it's like working at mkodo

What You’ll Be Doing

Technical Leadership

• Define and evolve backend architecture to ensure scalability, maintainability, and performance.
• Set coding standards and champion secure development practices (e.g. OWASP).
• Influence technology choices, frameworks, and tools to support engineering excellence.
• Oversee improvements to CI/CD pipelines, build processes, and operational workflows.
• Clearly articulate risk of technical problems to non-technical stakeholders (e.g., legal, product owner, designer).
• Lead projects and features to good outcomes, ensuring appropriate engineering decisions are made to factor in technical debt, systems design, stability/reliability, monitoring/observability, and business need.

Hands-On Guidance

• Contribute to key backend systems when your expertise is needed.
• Review and refine critical code, ensuring alignment with architectural goals and best practices.
• Provide technical oversight for major initiatives, ensuring architectural soundness.

Mentoring & Collaboration

• Coach, mentor, and develop engineers, raising capability across the backend discipline.
• Facilitate design discussions, code reviews, and collaborative problem-solving sessions.
• Build consensus for architectural and technical decisions across teams and stakeholders.

Check out the full details, including day-to-day duties and responsibilities on our website: mkodo careers

We’d love to hear from you if…

• You have strong backend engineering experience, ideally including Java (Java 11+) and Spring Boot.
• You have proven ability to design and lead backend architectures for complex systems.
• You are familiar with cloud environments (AWS is mandatory) and container orchestration (Kubernetes).
• You are experienced in event-driven architectures and messaging platforms such as Kafka.
• You have strong understanding of RESTful APIs, microservices, and distributed system design.
• You have knowledge of SQL and NoSQL databases.
• You are experienced in CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern deployment practices.
• You are a skilled mentor with the ability to influence technical direction across teams.
• You have strong problem-solving skills, balancing technical, product, and delivery considerations.
• You are comfortable in agile environments using Git-based SCM and tools like Jira or Redmine.
• You are aware of compliance frameworks such as ISO27001 and PCI.

What’s in it for you?

• Annual Leave – 23 days holiday, plus all bank holidays, increasing by 1 day per year of service, after 3 years (up to 29 days), Birthday Day-Off, Extra day-off over Christmas, Annual volunteer day.
• Recognition & Rewards - Annual Performance Bonus and Profit Share Scheme, Tech Loan, Length of Service rewards – 5 & 10 year clubs!
• Hybrid Working (2-4 days per month office-based minimum) either in our London or Newcastle office;
• Group Income Protection
• Life Insurance
• Salary Sacrifice Pension, with 5% employer contribution match
• Health & Wellbeing - Employee Assistance Programme, 24/7 Smart Health GP Access, Cycle to Work scheme, Bi-Annual Health Check
• Digital Nomad policy – allowing you to work from anywhere for 4 weeks per year.
• Growth and Development – Relevant individual training budget and the opportunity to grow within a dynamic and supportive team.
• Generous refer a friend scheme.
• Plus lots more! Read our full list of benefits.

About us

We have an open, supportive, dynamic culture where talented people are trusted to contribute to the team and company by carrying out their roles in a professional, collaborative, and skilled manner. We value the expertise of our team members and offer opportunities for personal development and career progression within the company.

If this is the opportunity you have been waiting for, to work in a fast-paced company with innovative products and cutting-edge technology, please apply now.

The candidates must be eligible to work in the UK as no visa sponsorship can be provided.