Senior Backend Engineer (Node.js) - London

Tesco; Welwyn Garden City; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retail company in Welwyn Garden City seeks a Backend Development Engineer. Candidates should have 7+ years of software development experience, particularly with JavaScript and Node.JS. The role involves developing scalable backend systems that impact millions of customers, requiring knowledge in cloud technologies, containerization, and modern development practices. The company values diversity and offers a hybrid work environment.

Benefits

Annual bonus scheme up to 20%

25 days holiday plus personal day

Private medical insurance

26 weeks maternity and adoption leave

Free 24/7 virtual GP service

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional experience as a Backend Software Developer.
• At least 4 years of experience in backend development using JavaScript, TypeScript, and Node.JS.
• Experience in creating high traffic applications using Express.js or similar frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy scalable backend systems.
• Translate business requirements into coding tasks.
• Follow best practices for coding and version control.

Skills

JavaScript

TypeScript

Node.JS

GraphQL

REST

Docker

Kubernetes

Kafka

Azure Cloud

Redis

Job description

Tesco UK • Welwyn Garden City • Full-Time • Permanent • Apply by 01-Jan-2026

As a backend development Engineer, you'll be working in an agile team of industry leading engineers to define and develop Tesco's xAPI (Experience API) that powers Tesco's various shopping experiences i.e., tesco.com, the mobile shop application, store and other internal facing applications. You'll be a passionate, pragmatic Engineer with an inquisitive mind who is motivated to make change for the better and most importantly put our customer first.

You’ll enjoy working as part of a team, liaise with product and program managers to understand requirements and build new software or extend existing software. You are a keen problem solver with the expertise and experience building extensible, maintainable, highly available, scalable, performant and observable quality software, Comfortable with modern engineering practices and backend development technologies, you'll use innovation to improve the customer experience and efficiency of engineering teams. The solutions that you will be responsible for will have a global reach, impacting millions of customers.

Some of the tech we are using at scale: Javascript, Typescript, Node.JS, GraphQL, REST, Kafka, Azure Cloud, Redis, Varnish Cache, Apollo Federation, Docker, Kubernetes etc.

What is in it for you

We're all about the little helps. That's why we make sure our Tesco colleague benefits package takes care of you - both in and out of work. Click Here to find out more!

• Annual bonus scheme of up to 20% of base salary
• Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 years' service) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave
• Free 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for you and your family, free access to a range of experts to support your mental wellbeing

You will be responsible for

• Use your in-depth knowledge of JavaScript, Typescript, Node.JS, cloud and the backend services ecosystem to develop, and deploy scalable backend systems.
• Work with product managers to understand business/product requirements.
• Translate requirements into tasks & code.
• Commit code early and often, demonstrating understanding of version control & branching strategies.
• Automate everything by default.
• Write secure code by default.
• Write maintainable code and observe basic hygiene practices
• Implement relevant project instrumentation.
• Profile and optimise code.
• Apply understanding of cohesion and the SOLID principles to create well structured, maintainable software.
• Identify patterns in code and refactor the code towards them where it increases understanding and/or maintainability with minimal guidance.
• Produce test driven features in a specific programming language and demonstrate familiarity with the TDD development.
• Follow the best practices of continuous BDD/TDD/Performance/Security/Smoke testing.
• Work effectively with product stakeholders to communicate and translate needs into product improvements.
• Lead group discussions on system design and understand domain well enough to work with Product Managers to drive value.
• Support production systems, resolve incidents and perform root cause analysis.
• Debug/find complex problems and support/maintain the software solution.
• Share knowledge with the wider engineering community.
• Mentor and develop others around you.
• Produce proof of concepts to evaluate new tools

You will need

We are looking for people who have a passion for Technology. You will demonstrate experience of different platforms and technologies. We expect to see some or all of the following:

• 7+ Years professional experience as a Backend Software Developer.
• At least 4 years of experience in backend development using Javascript, Typescript, Node.JS and related backend technologies, frameworks.
• Exposure to a variety of JavaScript frameworks and libraries such as: Next.JS, React.JS and testing using Jest, Mocha.JS, Cucumber etc.
• Experience of using Node.js to create high traffic applications using Express.js, Sails, Koa or similar.
• Knowledge of microservices development and deployment in the cloud i.e., Azure/AWS/GCP cloud.
• Knowledge of virtualization, containerization and container orchestration technologies like Docker, Kubernetes etc.
• Experience with usage of GraphQL, building GraphQL servers and GraphQL Federation technologies like Apollo Federation.
• Experience with using and building REST API services.
• Knowledge of distributed messaging systems like Kafka, RabbitMQ etc.
• Knowledge of distributed caching technologies like Redis.
• A desire to write readable, maintainable, modular and extendable code.
• Exposure to the DevOps model.
• Experience in Lean and Agile environments and understanding of principles behind methodologies such as: BDD, ATDD and TDD.

About us

Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer's favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or out on the move. Our core purpose is 'Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day'. Serving means more than a transactional relationship with our customers. It means acting as a responsible and sustainable business for all stakeholders, for the communities we are part of and for the planet.

We are proud to have an inclusive culture at Tesco where everyone truly feels able to be themselves. At Tesco, we not only celebrate diversity, but recognise the value and opportunity it brings. We're committed to creating a workplace where differences are valued, and make sure that all colleagues are given the same opportunities. We're proud to have been accredited Disability Confident Leader and we're committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. For further information on the accessibility support we can offer, please click here.

We're a big business and we can offer a range of diverse full-time & part-time working patterns across our many business areas, which means that we can find something that works for you. We work in a more blended pattern - combining office and remote working. Our offices will continue to be where we connect, collaborate and innovate. If you are applying internally, please speak to the Hiring Manager about how this can work for you - Everyone is welcome at Tesco.