Senior Software Developer - Scala

The Sage Group plc; City of Westminster; Híbrido; GBP 85.000 - 110.000; Jornada completa

Ventajas ofrecidas por este puesto de trabajo

Generous pension

Hybrid working

Volunteer days

Health cover

Work away scheme

Training & development

Holiday buy/sell

Descripción de la vacante

The Sage Group plc is seeking a Senior Backend Developer to join our HCM Localisation engineering team. You will build scalable backend services with Scala, Play Framework, and Pekko, supporting complex HR workflows in a cloud environment.

This hybrid role requires 3 days weekly in Newcastle or London offices, delivering robust services, collaborating across teams, and driving platform modernization with best-practice engineering and observability.

Formación

• Extensive backend development experience in enterprise SaaS or cloud environments.
• Strong Scala expertise: collections, Futures, immutability, pattern matching, and clean design.
• Experience with Play Framework or JVM backends; Pekko/Akka is a plus.
• Relational DB skills with MySQL, SQL optimization and query profiling.
• Experience with Redis, caching, and distributed systems.

Responsabilidades

• Design, develop, and maintain robust backend services using Scala 2.13 and Play.
• Build testable, maintainable code with functional programming and Futures.
• Work with MySQL to optimize data access, queries, and indexes.
• Develop and support services in AWS in collaboration with DevOps.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, PR workflows, and code reviews.
• Collaborate with frontend, QA, product owners, and other backend developers.
• Improve production stability through observability and debt reduction.
• Design and evolve complex distributed systems with best practices.
• Hands-on AWS and cloud-native delivery practices.

Conocimientos

Scala

Play Framework

Pekko / Akka

MySQL

Redis

AWS

CI/CD

Git

Distributed systems

Functional programming

Asynchronous programming

Cloud-native

Descripción del empleo

We are looking for a Senior Backend Developer to join our HCM Localisation engineering team and help evolve a large-scale, cloud-based enterprise product. This role is focused on building and maintaining scalable backend services supporting complex product workflows, integrations, performance improvements, and ongoing platform modernisation.

Please note: This is a hybrid role requiring 3 days per week in our Newcastle or London office

In this role you'll:

• 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.
• Extensive 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 (e.g., Tagless Final, type classes, 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.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with Squeryl, Doobie, or similar Scala data access libraries.
• Familiarity with Grafana or Kibana dashboards, alerting, logging, and production observability practices.
• Experience with large distributed systems, horizontal scaling, resilient service design, or high-throughput Play / Pekko applications.
• Previous experience in Payroll, HR, HCM, ERP, compliance-heavy, or localisation-focused product domains.
• Russian, Ukrainian, or Polish language skills would be beneficial, but are not essential.

Ways of Working:

• Pragmatic, delivery-focused, and able to balance new feature development with maintenance, bug fixing, and technical improvement work.
• Proactive in code reviews, design discussions, troubleshooting, and knowledge sharing across the engineering team.
• Strong problem-solving mindset, attention to detail, and willingness to work with an established codebase while helping modernise it over time.

Working at Sage means you're supporting millions of small and medium sized businesses globally with technology to work faster and smarter. We leverage the future of AI, meaning business owners spend less time doing routine tasks, like entering invoices and generating reports, and more time pursuing their ambitions. Our colleagues are the best of the best. It's why we were awarded 2024 Best Places to Work by Glassdoor. Because to achieve extraordinary outcomes, we need extraordinary teams. This means infusing Sage with people who knock down barriers, continuously innovate, and want to experience their potential.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCMtTYUUiuU

Benefits:

• Generous bonuses and pension scheme: Up to 8% matched pension contribution plus 2% top-up by Sage.
• 25 days of paid annual leave with the option to buy up to another 5 days.
• 8 bank holiday days.
• Paid 5 days yearly to volunteer through our Sage Foundation.
• 50% income protection.
• Holiday buy + sell.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
• Work away scheme for up to 10 weeks a year.
• Ongoing training and professional development.
• Hybrid working.
• Healthy Mind app membership
• Access to various helpful memberships for finances, health and wellbeing.