Senior Backend Engineer (UK/Europe - Remote)

We are on a quest for extraordinary individuals who are mission-driven and aspire to create a profound and positive impact in the world by addressing the skills crisis. Our dazzle of zebras is a force to be reckoned with - they possess unwavering determination, take decisive action, push boundaries with innovative ideas, and thrive in an environment that offers autonomy, trust, and accountability to deliver exceptional outcomes.

The skills crisis is a colossal challenge, one that is expected to have a greater economic impact than the COVID-19 pandemic. The shortage of skilled workers is leaving millions of positions unfilled, and this crisis has been deemed by the World Economic Forum as one of the biggest challenges of our time, second only to climate change.

The world’s largest companies are transforming into skills-based organisations to survive, but most are struggling to do so without the proper tools. That's where we come in - we have built an innovative platform for workforce management that empowers companies to make skill-based decisions and thrive.

Our existing clients have already witnessed the positive impact that skill-based decision-making has on organisational performance, diversity, culture, and management insight. We have several FTSE100 customers and have recently secured funding from a top European VC fund.

We are now assembling the right team to help us become the leader in the multi-billion dollar skill-based workforce planning market. Our mission is clear and ambitious - by 2033, we will be recognised as the most crucial HR system for the world’s largest companies. In doing so, we will be driving a quarter of all people decisions and will be making a significant contribution towards solving the skills crisis. We’d love you to join us and make a difference that will shape the future for generations to come!

The Challenge

The ultimate aim is to design and build scalable, reliable systems that meet the needs of our users. A major aspect of the role will involve transforming complex requirements into robust backend solutions, optimising for performance, and ensuring seamless integration with the broader system architecture. You'll play a key role in driving technical excellence, enabling the team to build fast, iterate effectively, and deliver high-quality experiences.

The Team

You’ll be part of a collaborative, globally distributed, cross-functional product team, reporting to the Engineering Lead. Together, you'll develop innovative solutions, solve customer challenges and deliver meaningful value.

Responsibilities

As a senior member of our Engineering function, you'll play a pivotal role in driving the build of a market-leading product by:

• Collaborating in a cross-functional squad.
• Contributing great ideas and solutions to solve our customer’s challenges.
• Spend most of your time making, not supporting, and having ownership over one or more microservices, with a focus on delivering reliable, clean and efficient code with automating testing.
• Maximise velocity by knocking down barriers which slow you and the team down, including minimising technical debt and internal dependencies.
• Assisting with prototyping, identifying key technical risks, validating (or invalidating) ideas quickly and accurately.
• As we grow the Engineering team, you’ll have the opportunity to mentor junior members of the team, as well as the option to focus as an individual highly skilled contributor.

Requirements

Essential:

• Professional experience with Node.js and TypeScript.
• Extensive experience building functional, complex web-based digital products.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines.
• Cloud expertise (preferably AWS or Heroku).
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong collaboration skills and experience working in cross-functional squads.
• Self-starter with a track record of taking ownership and working autonomously.
• Highly motivated, resilient, and optimistic, with the ability to thrive in evolving or ambiguous situations.

Desirable:

• Familiarity with NestJS and RabbitMQ.
• Passion for developing SaaS products or prior experience with B2B SaaS.
• Background in HR tech or familiarity with HR-related products and tools.
• Previous experience in a startup environment.
• Experience with microservice architectures in high-availability environments.

Benefits

🤝 Meaningful share options

🏥 Health insurance

💰 Enhanced pension

🍼 Nursery salary sacrifice scheme

🌴 25 days holiday

🏡 Remote-first

🖥️ Work from home budget

🧠 L&D budget

🦷 Dental cover

👓 Eyes care support

🏢 Co-working space

🧘‍♀️ Wellbeing allowance

🛫 Travel insurance

🚗 Electric car scheme

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

At Spotted Zebra, we welcome people of all stripes. We are committed to providing equal opportunities and an inclusive and diverse culture.

We believe that each and every one of us possesses an extraordinary set of skills and abilities, waiting to be discovered, nurtured, and harnessed for the benefit of all.

We are a team. And no matter your race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, civil or family status, age, or disability, we will empower you to unleash your superpower to help us create a world where everyone is able to utilise their unique blend of skills and abilities to contribute to the greater good.

Everyone is unique and we encourage you to let us know in your application, or share with your recruiter directly, if there is anything we can do to make your interview experience with us more comfortable and positive.

At Spotted Zebra, everyone is welcome. So even if you don’t meet all the requirements, we would still love to hear from you. We are always keen to speak with people who are passionate about our mission.