Senior Backend Engineer

Sphere Digital Recruitment; City Of London; Remote; GBP 92,000 - 111,000; Full time

Job summary

Sphere Digital Recruitment is seeking a Senior Backend / Platform Engineer Contractor to support the development and scaling of a critical internal platform. This hands-on role focuses on backend services, cloud infrastructure and platform scalability within a fast-paced product environment.

Based in London with remote flexibility, the contract runs for 6 months initially, with start date ASAP. The role pays £500-£600 per day Outside IR35 and may involve occasional office travel.

Qualifications

• Strong commercial experience with Python development.
• Experience building and scaling cloud-native applications.
• Strong knowledge of GCP and infrastructure best practices.
• Experience with FastAPI or similar backend frameworks.
• Understanding of platform engineering, DevOps or cloud architecture.
• Experience working in start-up, scale-up or product-led environments.
• Comfortable operating in fast-moving teams with evolving requirements.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Developing and enhancing backend services and APIs.
• Improving platform performance, reliability and scalability.
• Designing solutions to support growing data volumes and user demand.
• Working with cloud infrastructure and deployment tooling.
• Supporting integrations with third-party systems and services.
• Implementing monitoring, logging and observability capabilities.
• Collaborating with product and engineering teams to deliver new functionality.
• Advising on architecture and technical best practices.
• Helping establish processes to support future platform growth.

Skills

Python development

Cloud-native apps

GCP architecture

FastAPI

Tools

Terraform

React/TypeScript

Job description

An exciting high-growth technology business is looking for a Senior Backend / Platform Engineer Contractor to support the development and scaling of a critical internal platform. This is a hands-on role focused on backend engineering, cloud infrastructure and platform scalability within a fast-paced product environment.

• Based in: London (primarily remote)
• Occasional office travel required
• 6 months initially
• Start date: ASAP
• £500-£600 per day - Outside IR35

The Job

As the Senior Backend / Platform Engineer, your responsibilities will include:

• Developing and enhancing backend services and APIs
• Improving platform performance, reliability and scalability
• Designing solutions to support growing data volumes and user demand
• Working with cloud infrastructure and deployment tooling
• Supporting integrations with third-party systems and services
• Implementing monitoring, logging and observability capabilities
• Collaborating with product and engineering teams to deliver new functionality
• Advising on architecture and technical best practices
• Helping establish processes to support future platform growth

You

• Strong commercial experience with Python development
• Experience building and scaling cloud-native applications
• Strong knowledge of GCP and infrastructure best practices
• Experience with FastAPI or similar backend frameworks
• Understanding of platform engineering, DevOps or cloud architecture
• Experience working in start-up, scale-up or product-led environments
• Comfortable operating in fast-moving teams with evolving requirements
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
• Tech Stack: Python, FastAPI, GCP, Terraform, React / TypeScript

Sphere is an equal opportunities employer. We encourage applications regardless of ethnic origin, race, religious beliefs, age, disability, gender or sexual orientation, and any other protected status as required by applicable law.

Sphere Digital Recruitment is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.