Software Development Engineer II - BDP

TESCO UK; Welwyn Garden City; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Tesco UK is hiring a Software Development Engineer II to design and build high-performance, event-driven backend services that power personalised customer experiences at scale. You’ll contribute to Java/Spring Boot modules, collaborate with a cross-functional team, and ship code through modern CI/CD pipelines.

The role emphasizes learning Kafka, Kubernetes, observability, and distributed systems concepts, with a strong focus on code quality, testing, and impact on millions of users across web,

Qualifications

• Strong knowledge of Java and backend development.
• Experience architecting or contributing to event-driven services.
• Understanding of distributed systems concepts and scalability considerations.
• Willingness to learn, collaborate, and write clean, testable code.

Responsibilities

• Develop features for a backend event-driven platform using Java and Spring Boot.
• Pair with senior engineers to design, implement, test and ship code.
• Write automated test suites to ensure code quality and maintainability.
• Participate in planning sessions and team discussions to understand requirements.
• Collaborate to review code and improve development practices.
• Gain hands-on experience with Kafka, Kubernetes, and distributed services.

Skills

Java

Backend development

Distributed systems

Communication

Team collaboration

Tools

Spring Boot

Kafka

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Git

NoSQL

Job description

Tesco's Behavioural Data Platform (BDP) is a high-scale, real-time platform that captures and processes behavioural data from web, mobile, and in-store systems to power analytics and customer experiences. It enables teams to access and act on unified data streams in real time, driving faster, data-driven decision making across the organisation.

We're looking for a Software Development Engineer II to join our collaborative, self-organising team. You'll contribute to the design and development of high-performance event-driven services that enable personalised customer experiences to millions of users by capturing user behavioural data. This is an excellent opportunity to grow your backend engineering skills, gain hands-on experience with modern technologies, and contribute to real-world systems that operate at scale.

• Developing features for a backend event-driven platform using Java and Spring Boot
• Pairing with more senior engineers to design, implement, test, and ship code
• Learning to use observability tools like New Relic and Splunk to monitor live systems
• Participating in planning sessions and team discussions to understand requirements and contribute ideas
• Writing automated test suites to ensure code correctness and maintainability
• Collaborating with team members to review code and improve development practices
• Developing an understanding of distributed systems, data processing at scale, and performance optimisation
• Creating, maintaining, and deploying applications using CI/CD pipelines
• Gaining hands-on experience with Kafka, Kubernetes, and managing distributed services
• A working knowledge of Java and an interest in backend development
• Familiarity with object-oriented programming principles
• Some practical experience building event-driven services and/or REST APIs
• A willingness to learn and collaborate in a team environment
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to ask questions, seek feedback, and share what you're learning

Nice to have:

• Exposure to Spring Boot, NoSQL databases, or cloud services
• Curiosity about performance, scalability, and observability in large-scale systems
• Familiarity with Git, CI/CD pipelines, and containerisation
• Some experience working with platforms like Kafka

You might know us as a supermarket, technology company or even for our award-winning mobile network. Truth is, we're all of those things, and much more. Our colleagues work with one goal in mind, helping to make every day a little better for our customers, colleagues and communities all over the world. No two customers are the same, neither are our colleagues.

At Tesco, we champion a balance that lets you thrive both in and out of work. Spend 60% of your week collaborating with colleagues at our office locations or local sites and the rest remotely. Whether you're just kicking off your career, juggling passions, or navigating big life events, we're here to support you. We always welcome a conversation about flexible working, so talk to us throughout your application about how we can support.

We're proud to be an accredited Disability Confident Leader, where everyone's welcome. That's why we commit to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. And if you're interested in joining our team but don't tick every box, don't let that hold you back from applying.