Principal Backend Engineer

Principal Backend Engineer – UK

No background or promotional information retained. This role is a senior technical partner to the CTO focused on backend engineering strategy and execution.

• Partner with the CTO to define and evolve Scheme Serve’s backend engineering strategy.
• Establish and maintain backend engineering standards, principles and best practices.
• Drive consistency across multiple engineering teams in architecture, implementation patterns and operational practices.
• Champion secure software development practices and embed security throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Define and improve code quality standards, review processes and engineering governance.
• Provide architectural guidance for new systems, services and platform initiatives.
• Help shape and guide the ongoing transformation of the .NET Framework monolith into a modern service‑based, API‑first platform.
• Provide technical leadership across both C# and Type Script backend ecosystems.
• Act as a technical mentor and coach for backend engineers across the organisation.
• Review significant technical proposals, designs and architectural decisions.
• Drive improvements in observability, resilience, performance and operational excellence.
• Identify technical risks and help teams navigate them successfully.
• Help teams make pragmatic technology decisions, balancing innovation, risk and long‑term maintainability.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and engineering practices, identifying opportunities that provide genuine business value.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, continuous learning and constructive technical challenge.
• Occasionally contribute directly to implementation work when strategic initiatives or business priorities require it.
• Represent backend engineering interests in strategic technical discussions.
• Build strong relationships across Engineering, Product and Leadership teams.
• Be a generally awesome person.

• Commercial experience building and operating large‑scale backend systems.
• Strong experience with C#/.NET and Type Script, with the ability to work effectively across multiple backend technologies.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, distributed systems and API design.
• Experience working with both legacy applications and modern service‑oriented architectures.
• Strong knowledge of secure software development practices and application security principles.
• Deep understanding of code quality, maintainability and software craftsmanship.
• Strong knowledge of Azure cloud services and cloud‑native architecture.
• Excellent understanding of modern databases and data modelling principles.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Proven ability to influence technical direction through expertise, collaboration and communication.
• Experience mentoring engineers and raising technical standards across teams.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD, testing strategies and modern software delivery practices.
• Excellent Git knowledge and development workflow practices.
• Ability to balance long‑term technical strategy with short‑term business priorities.
• Be based in the UK.

• Experience in modernising large monolithic applications.
• Experience with Cloudflare services and edge technologies.
• Experience building and operating SaaS platforms at scale.
• Experience with in financial services, insurance or other regulated industries.
• Knowledge of observability tooling, platform engineering and site reliability practices.
• Experience with AI‑assisted software development workflows and engineering productivity tooling.

• By year‑one, be a trusted technical partner to the CTO.
• Further evolve and embed backend engineering standards across the organisation.
• Improve consistency in architecture, coding practices and operational processes across multiple teams.
• Raise awareness and adoption of secure software development practices.
• Support engineers through mentoring, coaching and technical leadership.
• Influence key platform modernisation initiatives.
• Help create a clear technical vision for the future evolution of Scheme Serve’s backend platform.
• Shape the future direction of backend engineering at Scheme Serve.
• Make a lasting positive impact on the quality, security and maintainability of our platform.

• Fully remote UK‑based role.
• Twice‑yearly company retreats.
• Flexible working arrangements.
• Paid charity days.
• Friendly, supportive and highly collaborative culture.
• Opportunity to shape the technical future of a successful, independent software company.
• Work directly alongside the CTO on engineering strategy and innovation.