Software Development Engineer II - Personalistion

Tesco UK; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Tesco is building real-time personalization capabilities to power customer experiences across web, mobile and in-store channels. The Personalisation team leverages real-time data, ML, and large-scale distributed systems to turn insights into intelligent decisions in milliseconds.

You will work on low-latency services, Java microservices, streaming, and ML model integration, collaborating with product, data science, and analytics to deliver personalised experiences for millions of Tesco customers.

Qualifications

• Strong Java backend experience.
• Experience building microservices and APIs.
• Understanding of event-driven systems.
• Familiarity with stream processing concepts.
• Knowledge of distributed systems.
• Strong communication and teamwork skills.
• Interest in data-driven personalisation systems.
• Experience with Apache Flink and Apache Beam.
• Experience with Kafka.
• Familiarity with Apache Camel.
• Experience with NoSQL databases (Cassandra, DynamoDB) and Redis.
• Cloud experience (GCP or AWS).
• Docker and Kubernetes.
• ML model serving or feature stores.
• A/B testing platforms.
• Terraform or infrastructure as code.
• Performance and scalability optimisation.

Responsibilities

• Build low-latency, high-throughput personalization services.
• Develop Java/Spring Boot microservices with REST/gRPC APIs.
• Work with Kafka and event-driven architectures.
• Create data pipelines with Flink and Beam.
• Integrate ML models and feature stores.
• Collaborate with product, data science and analytics teams.
• Write automated tests and improve reliability.
• Monitor systems with telemetry and dashboards.
• Support CI/CD pipelines and deployments.
• Contribute to experimentation and A/B testing.

Skills

Java backend

Microservices & APIs

Event-driven systems

Stream processing

Distributed systems

Communication & teamwork

Data-driven personalization

Kafka

Apache Flink / Beam

Tools

Kafka

Apache Flink

Apache Beam

Apache Camel

Cassandra

DynamoDB

Redis

Docker

Kubernetes

GCP / AWS

Job description

Every customer is different, and we're building the technology to make every Tesco experience feel personal. Join Tesco's Personalisation team and help shape the experiences of millions of customers every day by powering real-time recommendations, offers, targeting, and experimentation across our web, mobile, and in-store channels. Our platforms combine real-time data, machine learning, and large-scale distributed systems to turn customer insights into intelligent decisions in milliseconds. You'll work on complex engineering challenges spanning streaming data, low-latency decisioning services, and ML powered systems, while collaborating closely with product, data science, and analytics teams. This is an opportunity to build technology at significant scale, influence the evolution of our personalisation platform, and directly impact how millions of customers discover, shop, and save with Tesco.

• Building low-latency, high-throughput services for personalisation
• Developing Java / Spring Boot microservices with REST/gRPC APIs
• Working with Kafka and event-driven architectures
• Building pipelines using Apache Flink and Apache Beam
• Integrating ML models and feature stores
• Working with NoSQL databases and Redis caching
• Using Apache Camel for integration where required
• Collaborating with product, data science, and analytics teams
• Writing automated tests and improving reliability
• Monitoring systems using New Relic, Splunk, and metrics platforms
• Supporting CI/CD pipelines and deployments
• Contributing to experimentation (A/B testing)

• Strong Java backend experience
• Experience building microservices and APIs
• Understanding of event-driven systems
• Familiarity with stream processing concepts
• Knowledge of distributed systems
• Strong communication and teamwork skills
• Interest in data-driven personalisation systems
• Nice to have
• Experience with Apache Flink and Apache Beam
• Experience with Kafka
• Familiarity with Apache Camel
• Experience with NoSQL databases (Cassandra, DynamoDB) and Redis
• Cloud experience (GCP or AWS)
• Docker and Kubernetes
• ML model serving or feature stores
• A/B testing platforms
• Terraform or infrastructure as code
• Performance and scalability optimisation

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. If you need support with your application, for more information. And if you're interested in joining our team but don't tick every box, don't let that hold you back from applying.