Senior Software Engineer - Commercial Trading

Marks and Spencer; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee discount

Holiday allowance

Discretionary bonus

Pension and life assurance

Induction and training

Wellbeing support

Volunteer day

Job summary

Marks & Spencer's Software Engineering team is seeking a Staff Software Engineer in the Commercial Trading domain to help redefine digital capabilities for millions of customers and thousands of colleagues. You will lead, design and deliver scalable backend systems, mentor engineers, and collaborate with architecture and product teams to drive observability, security and performance.

The role emphasizes engineering excellence, code reviews and cross-functional partnership to build resilient

Qualifications

• Proven track record in developing high-performing backend systems.
• Strong understanding of software engineering principles and patterns.
• Experience with automated testing across unit, integration, and system levels.
• Proficiency in Java, PL/SQL, JavaScript, Git and CI/CD.
• Experience building cloud-native applications with emphasis on performance and resilience.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Mentoring mindset with ability to share knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Develop, test and debug high-quality software, championing engineering best practices.
• Provide technical leadership on solution design and standards.
• Lead design and delivery of scalable software and integrations with Architecture teams.
• Conduct code reviews to ensure standards, testing and quality.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate business challenges into tech solutions.
• Mentor engineers to support their growth.
• Drive monitoring, incident response and operational excellence.

Skills

Backend systems

Java

PL/SQL

JavaScript

Git

CI/CD

Cloud-native apps

Observability

Performance

Resilience

Tools

SQL Server

MongoDB

Dynatrace

Azure Cloud

Kubernetes

React

Next.js

TypeScript

Angular

Ignite

Redis

Job description

As part of the M&S Software Engineering team, you’ll be joining a well-loved historic brand, working on solutions that serve millions of loyal customers and thousands of colleagues. With ethical values that run right through the company’s core and technology leaders that truly understand software engineering, it’s an exciting time as we’re redefining ourselves into a digital-first and engineering-led organisation, with the quality of our engineering team being a key differentiator.

As a Staff Software Engineer within our Commercial Trading domain, your expertise will help drive this transformation by creating robust, scalable and resilient solutions that deliver value across the business. You’ll play a key role in shaping technical direction, improving engineering standards and ensuring our products and platforms are built with strong observability, operational excellence and best‑in‑class engineering practices.

What You’ll Do

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Develop, test and debug high-quality software solutions, leading by example and championing engineering best practices across the team.
• Provide technical leadership within projects, guiding engineers on solution design, implementation approaches and software engineering standards.
• Lead the design and delivery of scalable, adaptable software solutions and third‑party integrations, partnering closely with Architecture teams where appropriate.
• Conduct thorough code reviews to ensure adherence to technical standards, maintainability, automated testing strategies and high-quality code, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Collaborate closely with business stakeholders, product managers and engineers to understand business challenges and design effective technology solutions.
• Mentor engineers across the team, sharing knowledge and experience to support their technical growth and career development.
• Drive operational excellence through effective monitoring, alerting, incident response processes and continuous learning from operational events.

Who You Are

Your skills and experience will include:

• Proven track record in developing high-performing, robust backend systems and integrations, with a focus on scalability, optimisation and reliability.
• Deep understanding of software engineering principles, patterns and practices, applied to the development of maintainable, adaptable and resilient systems.
• Strong understanding of automated testing approaches and associated toolsets, applied effectively across unit, integration and system testing levels.
• Technical versatility and proficiency across relevant technologies and tools, including Java, PL/SQL, JavaScript, Git and CI/CD pipelines.
• Expertise in designing, building and operating scalable cloud‑native applications with a strong focus on performance, security and resilience.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical audiences and drive alignment across stakeholders.
• A collaborative and mentoring mindset, with a genuine passion for sharing knowledge and helping engineers develop and achieve their potential.

Desirable Experience

• Knowledge of the retail domain, particularly product lifecycle management, merchandising, commercial trading, assortment planning or sales planning, would be advantageous but is not essential.

Tech Stack

The team uses a variety of modern technologies, including:

• Backend: Java, Spring, Spring Boot, Micronaut
• Frontend: React, Next.js, TypeScript, Angular
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Azure Cloud, Kubernetes
• Observability: Dynatrace
• Databases: SQL Server, MongoDB
• Caching & Performance: Ignite, Redis

What’s in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger – helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast‑moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

• 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third‑party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you’ve completed your probation.
• Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more.
• Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours.
• Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future.
• Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one.
• Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal.
• Market‑leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave.
• 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services.
• One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you.

Everyone’s Welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.