Senior Backend Engineer (Java)

Senior Backend Engineer (Java) Location: Manchester, UK (Hybrid - 2 days/week on-site) Role Type: Contract About the Role We are seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to design, build, and scale resilient, high-performance distributed systems. This role is ideal for a pragmatic developer who thrives in fast-paced Agile environments, excels at navigating large existing codebases, and delivers production-ready software with minimal supervision. In this role, you will lead complex technical initiatives, influence system architecture, and leverage modern AI tooling (Claude and Codex) to accelerate delivery. You''ll work cross-functionally with product managers, frontend engineers, and platform teams while elevating code quality and mentoring fellow engineers. Core Responsibilities Architecture and API Design: Build and maintain scalable, fault-tolerant backend microservices and REST APIs. Technical Leadership: Lead medium-to-large engineering initiatives, participate in design reviews, and establish engineering best practices. System Operations and Reliability: Troubleshoot complex production issues, conduct root-cause analysis, and enhance observability, logging, and performance. Delivery and Quality: Write clean, testable Java code, conduct constructive code reviews, and drive automated testing (unit, integration, and E2E). DevOps and Collaboration: Partner with infrastructure teams to optimize CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and containerized deployments. What You''ll ..... full job details .....