Principal Backend Architect, Cloud-Native & AI-Ready

Turnitin; Manchester; Remote; GBP 57,000 - 97,000; Full time

Job summary

Turnitin is hiring a Principal Software Engineer for our Shared Services team to shape core platform capabilities used across our products and support millions of users worldwide.

We are a global, remote-first organization with team members in over 35 countries. Expect to lead backend design, drive architectural decisions, and mentor engineers while delivering scalable cloud-native solutions using Java and AWS technologies.

Qualifications

• Significant experience building and operating large-scale backend systems.
• Expertise in Java and modern cloud technologies.
• Experience with AWS serverless services (Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, SNS, SQS, EventBridge) and Kubernetes.
• Proficient in CI/CD tools, build, deployment and test automation.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, APIs, scalability and software architecture.
• Ability to influence technical direction and lead complex engineering initiatives.
• Excellent collaboration and communication within distributed teams.
• Mentoring and supporting growth of other engineers.
• Nice to have: AI/ML experience, SaaS or EdTech, or frontend tech like React.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of shared backend services and platform capabilities.
• Drive architectural decisions and technical strategy across multiple teams.
• Build scalable, highly available cloud-native solutions using Java and AWS technologies.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence.
• Collaborate with product, architecture, and engineering teams to solve complex challenges.
• Champion best practices in software quality, performance, reliability, and security.

Skills

Java

AWS

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Distributed systems

Software architecture

Mentoring

Leadership

Backend development

Tools

AWS Lambda

DynamoDB

API Gateway

SNS

SQS

EventBridge

Kubernetes

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Turnitin is hiring a Principal Software Engineer for our Shared Services team to shape core platform capabilities used across our products and support millions of users worldwide.

We are a global, remote-first organization with team members in over 35 countries. Expect to lead backend design, drive architectural decisions, and mentor engineers while delivering scalable cloud-native solutions using Java and AWS technologies.