Senior Backend Engineer — Java/Kotlin, SC Clearance

Sanderson Government & Defence; Cheltenham; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanderson Government & Defence is seeking an experienced Lead/Principal Software Engineer to join a fast‑paced, secure development team delivering mission‑critical Government and Defence solutions in the UK.

You will design and build scalable backend platforms, lead technical decisions, and mentor engineers across cross‑functional squads while operating within Agile DevSecOps, cloud-native environments and modern CI/CD pipelines to ensure robust, secure software delivery.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of commercial software engineering experience delivering production-grade solutions in complex environments.
• Strong experience developing Java applications.
• Experience with Kotlin or Scala on the JVM.
• Experience with Kafka or similar messaging/event-streaming.
• Experience integrating with PostgreSQL, Redis, and S3/Object Storage.
• Deep understanding of microservices, distributed systems and modern software design patterns.
• Experience with Big Data and data-intensive applications.
• Experience working in Agile DevSecOps environments.
• Knowledge of Zero Trust Architecture principles.
• Strong CI/CD, automated deployments and modern software delivery practices.
• Commitment to clean code, reviews, and high-quality documentation.
• Experience using GitHub, GitLab and Atlassian tools.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, deploy and enhance backend platforms and services for mission-critical programmes.
• Deliver secure, scalable software meeting functional and non-functional requirements.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies and continuous improvements.
• Collaborate with engineers, architects and product stakeholders.
• Own services from design through production support and ongoing reliability.
• Build and optimise CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes.
• Contribute to engineering standards and QA practices across the lifecycle.
• Support knowledge sharing and a collaborative engineering culture.
• Troubleshoot and resolve production issues when required.

Skills

5+ years experience

Java

Kotlin/Scala

Kafka

PostgreSQL

Redis

S3/Object Storage

Microservices

Big Data

DevSecOps

Zero Trust

CI/CD

GitHub/GitLab

Atlassian

Problem Solving

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

Azure

GitHub

GitLab

Atlassian Suite

Job description

Sanderson Government & Defence is seeking an experienced Lead/Principal Software Engineer to join a fast‑paced, secure development team delivering mission‑critical Government and Defence solutions in the UK.

You will design and build scalable backend platforms, lead technical decisions, and mentor engineers across cross‑functional squads while operating within Agile DevSecOps, cloud-native environments and modern CI/CD pipelines to ensure robust, secure software delivery.