Principal Backend Engineer — Cloud-Native, UK Remote

Turnitin; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first culture

Health care coverage

Education reimbursement

Competitive PTO

Self-care days

National holidays

Matches for charitable contributions

Wellness/home office allowance

Employee assistance program

Retirement plan with match

Job summary

Turnitin is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Shared Services team and shape the technical direction of core platform capabilities used across Turnitin products. This remote-friendly role targets backend and cloud-native development at scale.

You will collaborate with engineering leaders, architects, and product teams to deliver scalable, secure solutions for millions of users worldwide, while mentoring engineers and driving architectural excellence.

Qualifications

• Significant experience building and operating large-scale backend systems.
• Strong expertise in Java and modern cloud technologies.
• Experience with AWS serverless services such as Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, SNS, SQS, and EventBridge, as well as Kubernetes (K8s) and related cloud-native technologies.
• Experience with CI/CD tools, including build, deployment, and test automation.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, APIs, scalability, and software architecture.
• Experience influencing technical direction and leading complex engineering initiatives.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills within distributed teams.
• Passion for mentoring and supporting the growth of other engineers.

Responsibilities

• Lead the 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 throughout the organization.
• Collaborate with product, architecture, and engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges.
• Champion best practices in software quality, performance, reliability, and security.

Skills

Java

AWS cloud technologies

Kubernetes

API design

Distributed systems

CI/CD

Mentoring

Technical leadership

Tools

AWS Lambda

DynamoDB

API Gateway

SNS

SQS

EventBridge

React

Job description

Turnitin is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Shared Services team and shape the technical direction of core platform capabilities used across Turnitin products. This remote-friendly role targets backend and cloud-native development at scale.

You will collaborate with engineering leaders, architects, and product teams to deliver scalable, secure solutions for millions of users worldwide, while mentoring engineers and driving architectural excellence.