Senior Software Engineer; Java​/Kotlin

Senior Software Engineer (Java / Kotlin)

Manchester (Hybrid - 2 days onsite per week)

Contract until end of 2026

£731.25/day Umbrella

A global travel technology organisation is building a brand-new connectivity platform and requires a Senior Software Engineer to help shape the architecture, engineering standards and technical direction of a newly formed team.

This is a hands-on senior engineering role where you'll lead the design and delivery of large-scale backend services and integrations connecting external providers into a high-volume marketplace platform.

What you'll be doing

• Designing and building scalable backend services using Java and/or Kotlin
• Leading system design discussions and driving technical decisions
• Building integrations with third-party APIs and external platforms
• Developing resilient distributed systems with a strong focus on reliability and observability
• Collaborating with Product, Operations and Commercial teams to deliver business-critical functionality
• Driving engineering best practice, code quality and operational excellence
• Mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership within the team

Key experience required

• Strong commercial experience developing backend systems in Java and/or Kotlin
• Experience designing and operating distributed systems in production environments
• Strong understanding of API design, integrations and microservices architectures
• Experience working within AWS-based cloud environments
• Kubernetes, Docker and CI/CD experience
• Experience with event-driven architectures, messaging platforms or Kafka
• Strong knowledge of reliability engineering, observability, monitoring and incident management
• Ability to lead technical design initiatives and break down complex problems into deliverable solutions

Desirable experience

• Writing integration tests and contract tests
• Travel, marketplace, ticketing or connectivity platform experience
• Experience using Claude or other AI-assisted engineering tools
• Previous experience helping establish processes, standards and architecture within new or scaling teams

What's on offer

• Long-term contract through to the end of 2026
• Opportunity to influence architecture and engineering standards from the ground up
• Work on a highly scalable, globally distributed platform
• Hybrid working model with 2 days per week onsite in Manchester