Lead Software Engineer in Manchester

Deputy is a global SaaS remote-first workforce management company with hubs in Sydney, Melbourne, San Francisco and London, plus team members working remotely across the United States. Our platform serves over 1.5 million workers and 375,000 workplaces across 100+ countries. We are backed by top global investors and recently achieved Unicorn status.

At Deputy, we’re improving the world of work, one shift at a time, for 80% of the world’s workforce: hourly workers. These are the dedicated employees who keep our world running – from baristas to nurses, cleaners to delivery drivers, florists to factory workers. Despite their vital role in society, most workplace technology has focused on those workers who sit behind a desk, but at Deputy, we transform the frontline. When businesses use Deputy, their workplaces thrive – the business is more profitable, compliant, and productive, while the workers are more engaged and happier at work.

We’re becoming an AI-native company, a commitment that means you’ll be empowered (and expected) to use AI tools and thinking in your day-to-day work. You’ll have the training, support, and freedom to use AI responsibly and creatively to spark ideas, solve problems faster, and unlock new ways of working.

If you’re passionate about creating solutions that put people first and helping businesses and their teams thrive, join us at Deputy and make an impact where it matters most!

Role Summary

We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer (Back End) to use their experience to deliver meaningful impact across key initiatives and help raise the bar for engineering excellence. You’ll play a hands-on role in designing and building scalable backend systems, tackling complex technical challenges, and driving high-quality outcomes that matter to our customers.

You’ll collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, designers and leaders to develop robust products and features for the Deputy platform, supporting millions of users and businesses ranging from small and medium organisations to large enterprises. In this role, your work, from backend services to APIs and system integrations, will directly power and improve the day-to-day operations of customers around the world.

This role can be worked predominantly remotely; however, you must be able to attend the office when required and support occasional site visits as part of the role.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and deliver software solutions for product features, with consideration for high-performance, high-quality systems and applications.
• Write simple, efficient, self-documented, modular, high-quality code that follows best practices and improves the overall codebase.
• Uphold a high bar of engineering standards and co-ordinate with Infrastructure and Quality.
• Influence and problem-solve with senior, mid, and junior engineers to deliver high-quality outcomes. This role may not have direct reports, but your leadership and mentorship will drive the squads to successful outcomes.
• Mentor and guide more junior engineers in an impactful and meaningful way to their growth trajectory.

About you

• You are a skilful engineer with high standards and a passion for quality backed by 5+ years of related work experience.
• You have expertise in API design (REST & RPC) and its frameworks, including using protobuf, gRPC, OpenAPI.
• Experience with building service-oriented architecture, microservices, and modern techniques and tools around it, including Docker, ECS, Lambda, SQS, Kinesis, etc.
• Experience in persistence, storage and caching mechanisms, including MySQL, Redis, DynamoDB, S3, etc.
• Experience with Elasticsearch is desirable.
• Mastery of PHP, or Go would be highly advantageous.
• You build systems that include appropriate monitoring and observability, employing modern best practices for fault tolerance, including but not limited to caching, eventual consistency, queues, load balancing, circuit breaking, etc.
• Strategic problem-solver who excels at tackling complex technical challenges and providing innovative solutions that enhance product performance and user experience.
• Ability to lead by example, with excellent communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders and contribute to architectural decision-making.
• Experience with mentoring junior and mid-level developers, promoting best practices, and contributing to architectural decisions.
• Thrives under high levels of autonomy, takes initiative and ownership, and can navigate ambiguity. Has demonstrated ability to lead projects, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and drive project progress in a fast-paced environment.
• Passionate about continuous learning, with a deep commitment to staying ahead of industry trends and experimenting with new tools, frameworks, and development practices.

Employee Perks

• Enjoy a flexible and hybrid work policy, with a dedicated office 1 minute walk from Farringdon Station.
• Own a piece of Deputy through our Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP).
• Work from home stipend to help you get set up and succeed from home.
• Benefit from our employee pension matching programme.
• Access private health and dental insurance.
• Take paid parental leave to support you and your family.
• Enjoy additional leave days — including study assistance, celebration days and volunteering.
• 25 days’ holiday plus bank holidays.
• Feel secure with our income protection scheme for long-term absence due to illness or injury.
• Get involved with our global working groups; designed for collaboration, belonging and connection.
• Connect over weekly office lunches, social gatherings and industry events.

Deputy believes in equal opportunity and that inclusiveness and diversity promotes innovation. Our global team members are from a variety of cultures. We welcome different perspectives and skills.