Sr. Backend Engineer

United States Digital Space LLC; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

United States Digital Space LLC in Greater London is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to lead complex backend systems design and maintenance. You will contribute to high-quality software delivery and mentor junior engineers.

The ideal candidate will have over 7 years of experience in backend engineering, with a strong focus on Java and experience in distributed systems. This role emphasizes collaboration and technical clarity.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend engineering experience with critical systems in production expertise.
• Proven expertise in Java (Spring Boot) and strong familiarity with Python.
• Experience with distributed systems design and event-driven architectures.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of complex backend systems from design through production.
• Lead technical discussions and document trade-offs clearly.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers through code reviews.

Skills

Java (Spring Boot)

Python

PostgreSQL

AWS

Microservices architecture

Event-driven architecture

Data pipelines

Tools

Kinesis

Terraform

GitHub Actions

Node.js

TypeScript

Next.js

React

Job description

About the company

the company is the AI-native supplier of industrial materials for energy, infrastructure, and construction in wholesale and beyond.

We trade with global suppliers and distribute to European customers on our own account. Our AI runs the full trade and distribution end-to-end: sourcing, quality, pricing, sales, logistics, and embedded financing. For the customer, it feels like buying from their preferred local supplier; for our partners, it is the most convenient and safe way to do business across borders. Behind it, our software and agentic AI do the heavy lifting that used to take an asset‑intensive supply chain with four or five intermediaries and weeks of manual coordination.

Where we are today:

• Strong triple‑digit‑million euro turnover
• Seven European markets live
• 80+ people across Berlin (HQ), offices in London, Mumbai, and Shanghai

$40M Series B just closed, $75M raised to date from Atomico, Project A, and Inven Capital, institutional financing from international banks.

We are building the world’s first and last industrial‑grade AI operating system for materials, redefining how global trade works in one of the largest and most essential industries on earth.

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will be a technical anchor across the team — expected to lead by example, shape architecture decisions, and raise the quality bar for everything we ship. You will operate with a high degree of autonomy while staying deeply embedded in collaborative engineering culture.

Tech Stack:

Java 21 (Spring Boot 3), Python, LangGraph, LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini), PostgreSQL, Kinesis, AWS, Terraform, GitHub Actions, Node.js, TypeScript, Next.js, React.

What you will do

• Take ownership of complex backend systems from design through production — including architecture, implementation, and long‑term maintenance.
• Lead technical discussions, drive engineering decisions, and document trade‑offs clearly for the team.
• Mentor junior and mid‑level engineers through code reviews, pairing sessions, and structured feedback.
• Identify systemic weaknesses in our infrastructure, propose improvements, and execute on them with minimal direction.
• Collaborate across engineering, product, and data to align technical direction with business goals.
• Drive improvements to observability, reliability, and performance across our backend stack.
• Contribute to hiring by participating in technical interviews and helping define the engineering bar.

Who you are

• 7+ years of backend engineering experience, with a track record of owning critical systems in production.
• Deep expertise in Java (Spring Boot) and strong familiarity with Python; comfortable navigating a polyglot codebase.
• Proven experience designing distributed systems — event‑driven architecture, microservices, data pipelines.
• Strong command of PostgreSQL and experience working with cloud‑native infrastructure on AWS.
• Someone who has been through hypergrowth or scale challenges and has the scars and instincts to show for it.
• A multiplier: you make the engineers around you better through your presence, feedback, and technical clarity.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity — you can shape requirements, not just execute on them.

We are an equal‑opportunity employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, or any other characteristic. We believe that diversity drives innovation, creativity, and collective strength.