Remote-First Backend Platform Lead - Java & Serverless

Turnitin; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 57,000 - 97,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first culture

Generous time off

Health and wellness programs

Education reimbursement

Parental leave

Retirement benefits

Volunteer time

Global team

Job summary

Turnitin is hiring a Senior Backend Engineer in the United Kingdom. You will design scalable backend services using Java and serverless technologies, and contribute to frontend components when needed.

With 10+ years in backend development and leadership experience, you will guide cross-functional teams across Europe and the USA, shaping architecture, performance, and cost efficiency while mentoring junior engineers. This remote-first role supports a distributed, global team.

Qualifications

• Over 10 years of backend development with Java.
• Hands-on with serverless in AWS Lambda or similar.
• Frontend basics with React/Web Components.
• Designing distributed systems, scalability and data modeling.
• Proven cross-functional leadership across locations.
• CI/CD and DevOps practices, IaC familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and optimization of scalable backend services using Java and serverless tech.
• Architect RESTful APIs and event-driven systems for distributed apps.
• Provide technical leadership and ensure architectural alignment.
• Contribute to frontend components when needed.
• Analyze and optimize performance, scalability, and cost.
• Collaborate with Architects, PMs, and engineering leads.
• Mentor junior developers and promote knowledge sharing.
• Oversee CI/CD pipelines for reliable delivery.
• Maintain code quality through reviews and testing.
• Create documentation for shared components.

Skills

Java

Serverless architectures

Frontend basics

Distributed systems design

Leadership & mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Cloud technologies

CI/CD pipelines

DevOps practices

NoSQL data modeling

TDD/BDD

Tools

AWS Lambda

API Gateway

DynamoDB

SNS/SQS

EventBridge

CloudWatch

Datadog

Terraform

Kubernetes

Job description

Turnitin is hiring a Senior Backend Engineer in the United Kingdom. You will design scalable backend services using Java and serverless technologies, and contribute to frontend components when needed.

With 10+ years in backend development and leadership experience, you will guide cross-functional teams across Europe and the USA, shaping architecture, performance, and cost efficiency while mentoring junior engineers. This remote-first role supports a distributed, global team.