Principal Backend Engineer — Java & Serverless Leader

Turnitin; Newcastle upon Tyne; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Disability Insurance

Life Insurance

Vision Insurance

AD&D Insurance

Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

Health Savings Account (HSA)

Supplemental Life Insurance

Job summary

Turnitin is seeking a Principal Backend Engineer focused on Java and serverless architectures, with strong frontend awareness. You will lead the design of scalable backend services, APIs, and event-driven systems, while mentoring a team of engineers and collaborating with cross-functional groups across locations.

You will balance technical leadership with delivery deadlines, optimize performance and costs, and contribute to CI/CD and documentation.

Qualifications

• Over 10 years of backend development experience with Java.
• Strong focus on serverless architectures and cloud services.
• Experience leading teams and mentoring engineers.

Responsibilities

• Develop and enhance foundational backend services powering applications.
• Lead design, development, and optimization of scalable backend systems.
• Architect RESTful APIs and event-driven architectures for high performance.
• Provide technical leadership and ensure architectural standards.
• Oversee CI/CD pipelines for reliable delivery.
• Mentor junior developers and foster knowledge sharing.
• Collaborate with Architects, Product Managers, and leads to deliver solutions.

Skills

Java

Serverless

Frontend knowledge

Distributed systems

Leadership

AWS Lambda

APIs

CI/CD

Tools

AWS Lambda

DynamoDB

API Gateway

SNS/SQS

EventBridge

Job description

Turnitin is seeking a Principal Backend Engineer focused on Java and serverless architectures, with strong frontend awareness. You will lead the design of scalable backend services, APIs, and event-driven systems, while mentoring a team of engineers and collaborating with cross-functional groups across locations.

You will balance technical leadership with delivery deadlines, optimize performance and costs, and contribute to CI/CD and documentation.