Senior Software Engineer - Identity - London

MARKS&SPENCER; London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retail company in London is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to enhance its Identity Platform. The role involves influencing technical direction, writing high-quality code, and leading cross-team initiatives. Ideal candidates will have over 8 years of experience in distributed systems and expertise in JVM-based languages, especially Kotlin. A commitment to mentorship and strong engineering culture is essential. Join us in transforming the retail landscape.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience building and scaling distributed systems.
• Deep expertise in one or more JVM-based languages, ideally Kotlin.
• Proven experience in DevOps practices and CI/CD pipeline design.

Responsibilities

• Influence the technical direction of the Identity Platform.
• Write maintainable, high-quality code and uphold engineering best practices.
• Lead cross-team initiatives from design through to deployment.

Skills

Building and scaling distributed systems

JVM-based languages (Kotlin, Java)

DevOps practices

CI/CD pipeline design

Cloud environments (Azure)

Identity standards (OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect)

Job description

Overview

The M&S Identity team is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our dynamic team. You will provide technical expertise, ship thoughtful solutions, and operate with excellence. Creative, curious, and fearless, you will be an integral part of our empowered, self-managing domain engineering team, pushing the boundaries of our Identity Platform.

The team is responsible for the M&S Identity Platform, managing authentication journeys for both customers and colleagues. We sit at a unique intersection, delivering seamless authentication experiences for customers while enabling internal teams to build on a robust Identity Platform.

What you’ll do

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Influence the technical direction of the Identity Platform and shape our long-term architecture. Design solutions that improve the M&S Identity Platform, provide excellent user authentication experience to our customers and great developer experience to our engineers
• Lead and contribute to cross-team initiatives from design through deployment and operations
• Write maintainable, well-tested, high-quality code and uphold engineering best practices
• Focus on observability and maintain Service Level Objectives, take operational responsibility for the Identity Platform, including joining the on-call rota
• Foster a strong engineering culture through mentorship, code reviews, and collaboration
• Lead by example in producing high-quality documentation, including architecture, design, operational, and technical documentation
• Work closely with Product Managers, Designers, and Engineers across M&S to design elegant, scalable solutions
• Assist with recruiting and onboarding new engineers.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include:

• 8+ years of experience building and scaling distributed systems, ideally serving millions of users
• Deep expertise in one or more JVM-based languages (ideally Kotlin with Micronaut but will consider Java)
• Proven experience in DevOps practices, including running and operating what you build
• Experience designing CI/CD pipelines and driving improvements in developer productivity
• Comfortable working in cloud environments (preferably Azure)
• Experience with identity standards like OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect is a strong plus
• You balance long-term thinking with pragmatic delivery, and thrive in high-autonomy teams

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.

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