Scala Developer

Hackajob Ltd; Newcastle upon Tyne; Hybrid; GBP 77,000 - 94,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous bonuses

Pension plan

Hybrid work arrangement

Extended annual leave

Job summary

Hackajob Ltd is hiring a senior backend developer to build and scale enterprise-grade services using Scala and Play Framework in a Pekko-based environment.

You will work on large distributed systems, optimize MySQL data access, and contribute to CI/CD and observability in collaboration with cross-functional teams. This hybrid role requires three days per week in our Newcastle office.

Qualifications

• Enterprise backend development experience.
• Strong Scala experience including Futures, immutability, and pattern matching.
• Commercial experience with Play Framework or JVM backends; Akka/Pekko knowledge.
• Strong MySQL experience with SQL optimization and profiling.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain backend services in Scala 2.13 and Play in Pekko.
• Write clean, testable FP code with immutability and Futures.
• Work with MySQL to optimize data access and profiling.
• Develop, deploy, and support services in AWS with DevOps alignment.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, PR workflows, and code reviews.
• Collaborate with frontend, QA, PO, and other backend engineers.

Skills

Scala

Play Framework

Pekko/Akka

AWS

MySQL

Redis

CI/CD

Distributed systems

OO/FP

Git

Tools

Squeryl/Doobie

Grafana

Kibana

Pekko

Job description

Salary: £85,000 - 85,000 per year

Requirements:

• Professional backend development experience, ideally in enterprise, SaaS, or cloud-based product environments.
• Strong hands-on experience with Scala, including collections, Futures, immutability, pattern matching, error handling, and clean functional design.
• Commercial experience with Play Framework or comparable JVM backend frameworks; Pekko or Akka experience is highly relevant.
• Strong understanding of relational databases, especially MySQL, with practical knowledge of SQL optimization, indexes, query profiling, and transaction behaviour.
• Experience using Redis or similar technologies for caching, session handling, or performance-sensitive workloads.
• Deep understanding of OOP principles, functional programming, concurrency, the Scala type system, and advanced architectural patterns such as Tagless Final, type classes, and effect systems.
• Ability to design and evolve complex distributed systems while promoting engineering best practices across the team.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services and cloud-native delivery practices.
• Good understanding of CI/CD, Git, branching strategies, pull request flows, automated testing, and release practices.
• Ability to work effectively in distributed Agile teams, communicate clearly, and take ownership of complex technical problems.
• Experience with Squeryl, Doobie, or similar Scala data access libraries is nice to have.
• Familiarity with Grafana or Kibana dashboards, alerting, logging, and production observability practices is nice to have.
• Experience with large distributed systems, horizontal scaling, resilient service design, or high-throughput Play / Pekko applications is nice to have.
• Previous experience in Payroll, HR, HCM, ERP, compliance-heavy, or localisation-focused product domains is nice to have.
• Russian, Ukrainian, or Polish language skills would be beneficial, but are not essential.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain robust backend services using Scala 2.13 and Play Framework in a Pekko-based environment.
• Build clean, testable, and maintainable code using functional programming principles, immutability, pattern matching, and asynchronous programming with Futures.
• Work with MySQL to design efficient data access patterns, optimize queries, tune indexes, and profile database performance.
• Develop, deploy, and support services in AWS, working closely with DevOps and platform teams to ensure reliable delivery.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, Git-based pull request workflows, code reviews, and engineering best practices.
• Collaborate with frontend engineers, QA, product owners, solution designers, and other backend developers to deliver high-quality product increments.
• Support production stability by investigating issues, improving observability, and continuously reducing technical debt.
• Be pragmatic and delivery-focused, balancing new feature development with maintenance, bug fixing, and technical improvement work.
• Participate proactively in code reviews, design discussions, troubleshooting, and knowledge sharing across the engineering team.
• Work with an established codebase while helping modernise it over time.

Technologies:

• AWS
• Akka
• Backend
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• DevOps
• ERP
• Frontend
• Git
• Grafana
• Support
• JVM
• Kibana
• MySQL
• OOP
• Play Framework
• Redis
• SQL
• Sage
• Scala

More:

We are partnering directly with Sage to hire a Backend Developer for our HCM Localisation engineering team. This is a hybrid role requiring 3 days per week in our Newcastle office. We are building and maintaining a large-scale, cloud-based enterprise product, with a focus on scalable backend services, complex product workflows, integrations, performance improvements, and ongoing platform modernisation. We offer generous bonuses and pension benefits, including up to 8% matched pension contribution plus a 2% top-up by Sage, 25 days of paid annual leave with the option to buy up to 5 more days, 8 bank holiday days, paid volunteer days through our Sage Foundation, 50% income protection, holiday buy/sell, comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage, a work away scheme for up to 10 weeks a year, ongoing training and professional development, hybrid working, Healthy Mind app membership, and access to helpful memberships for finances, health, and wellbeing.

last updated 38 week of 2026