At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead large-scale projects and mentor engineers while designing high-performance data platforms.
- Company: Join DISCO, a revolutionary tech company transforming the legal industry with AI.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, medical benefits, and growth opportunities in a fun, inclusive environment.
- Other info: Be part of a dynamic team that values diversity and continuous learning.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by driving innovation and solving complex technical challenges.
- Qualifications: 10+ years in backend engineering with expertise in big data platforms and microservices.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
Your Impact
The Staff Software Engineer (Platform) leads large-scale projects and is a key contributor to their group's success. They are involved in long-term strategic planning, mentor senior engineers, and are influential in technical decision-making across multiple teams or a department. They focus on implementation and system design, as well as maintaining and evolving DISCO’s distributed data platform.
What You'll Do
- Technical Leadership and Mentorship: Provides technical leadership in project teams, guiding engineers, and contributing to technical decision-making. Sets technical direction for large projects or teams, driving innovation, and solving organization-wide problems.
- Performance Optimization: Focuses on designing systems for high performance, scalability, and reliability.
- Ownership: Proactively identifies areas of products and systems that currently have problems or will develop problems as well as makes plans to address those problems.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Works with stakeholders, including product managers, designers, developers, and executives, to align architectural designs with business needs and customer expectations.
- Software Development: Designs, develops, and maintains sophisticated, scalable, high-performance data software solutions, ensuring they are efficient, scalable, and meet business requirements with architectural excellence for our big data platform at petabyte scale. Responsible for the boundary identification, system design and grooming for one or more sub-systems.
- Code Quality and Optimization: Upholds and enhances code quality through rigorous review processes, optimization techniques, and adherence to best practices.
- Technical Problem Solving: Addresses intricate technical issues through innovative problem-solving strategies.
- Collaboration and Communication: Works effectively within the engineering team and cross-functional teams, collaborating with other engineers, product managers, and stakeholders, contributing to project planning and execution.
- Continuous Learning and Adaptation: Stays updated with the latest technology trends and advancements, continually enhancing skills and knowledge, bringing innovative ideas to the team.
- Technical Documentation: Creates and maintains comprehensive technical documentation, ensuring clarity and accessibility of information.
- Data Platform Development: Builds and maintains scalable and robust data platforms to support analytics, machine learning, and business intelligence.
- Data Integration and ETL: Develops and optimizes ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes and data integration pipelines. Ensures efficient data flow across various sources and systems.
- Advanced File Processing: Develops extensible file processing pipelines that offer flexible, self-service artifact generation. Researches and evaluates file processing software based on fidelity, reliability, and performance criteria. Models file processing outcomes within an observability framework to provide insights for engineering teams and business leaders. Develops engineering systems that facilitate rapid and automatic evaluation of file processors.
- Data Management: Crafts and orchestrates scaleout data pipelines that optimize serverless and containerized compute to balance cost, latency, and duration for big-data solutions. Contributes to algorithmically intensive data engines operating on streaming, large, or multi-tenant datasets. Troubleshoots systems, identify root causes, and rectify bugs.
Who You Are
- 10+ years of relevant experience in backend engineering, with a substantial focus on big data platforms.
- 7+ years of professional experience with each of the following: Service-Oriented Architecture, Docker-based services, microservices, API, and Data Model Design or Implementation.
- Experience with Large-Scale Systems: Involvement in developing, monitoring, and maintaining large-scale, high-availability software systems.
- Experience designing and developing from a Security Perspective.
- Demonstrated experience in leading or playing key roles in significant software projects, showing an ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team.
- Demonstrated expertise in designing, implementing, and maintaining (through operational observability) high-availability, high-performance, distributed data processing systems.
- Experience with gRPC and Protocol Buffers for efficient, language-agnostic service-to-service communication.
- Proven ability to deliver well-crafted, tested, and maintainable code solutions to complex technical challenges.
- Experience with a variety of software stacks including, but not limited to, JVM-focused tech stacks, particularly server-side Kotlin and gRPC.
- Deep expertise with both relational and non-relational data stores: Elasticsearch, Cassandra, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
- Experience delivering data platform software solutions (including designing, implementing, and operating) in the cloud.
- Experience selecting and extending 3rd party components (commercial or open source) that provide operational leverage.
- Familiarity with Agile development methodologies and practices.
- Experience using feature or release toggles as a code branching strategy.
- Experience leveraging observability systems (logging, metrics, traces) to monitor and debug production subsystems and generate business-level metrics.
- Experience with algorithmically intensive data engines operating on streaming, large, or multi-tenant datasets.
- Experience with designing, modifying, and operating multi-tenant systems.
- Experience with tools such as Envoy or AWS App Mesh.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and tools (like Jenkins, GitLab CI, or CircleCI) for automated testing and deployment of microservices.
Even Better If You Have...
- Knowledge of microservices architecture principles, including decentralized data management, service discovery, and bounded contexts.
- Skilled in microservices technology stack, ability to optimize performance, and ensure security and scalability across the system.
- Skilled in containerization technologies such as Docker and orchestration tools like Kubernetes.
- Experience in creating, deploying, and managing containers.
- Skilled in implementing RESTful APIs for outward-facing services and using gRPC for efficient internal service-to-service communication.
- Ability to build backend systems that can support future UI/UX initiatives and performance requirements.
- Knowledge of system architecture, design patterns, and best practices in software development.
- Skilled at designing and operating software in a Cloud Provider, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
- Knowledge of both relational and non-relational data stores, Elasticsearch, Cassandra, MySQL, PostgreSQL.
- Skilled at analytical abilities and problem-solving, capable of addressing complex technical challenges.
- Skilled in programming languages and frameworks commonly used in SaaS development. In particular, Java/Kotlin, Python, C#, as well as a deep understanding of software engineering principles.
- Familiarity with server management, network configurations, and an understanding of cloud services (like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud).
- Knowledge of various stages of the SDLC, including design, development, testing, and deployment.
- Knowledge of async message or event based dataflow architectures (Kafka, etc).
- Knowledge of design, implementation, and operation of data-intensive, distributed systems.
Authorization to Work in the U.K.
Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United Kingdom without sponsorship now or in the future. DISCO is not currently sponsoring visas.
Perks of DISCO
- Open, inclusive, and fun environment
- Benefits, including medical and dental insurance
- Competitive salary plus discretionary bonus
- Competitive salary plus RSUs
- Opportunity to be a part of a startup that is revolutionizing the legal industry
- Growth opportunities throughout the company
About DISCO
DISCO provides a cloud-native, artificial intelligence-powered legal solution that simplifies ediscovery, legal document review and case management for enterprises, law firms, legal services providers and governments. Our scalable, integrated solution enables legal departments to easily collect, process and review enterprise data that is relevant or potentially relevant to legal matters. At DISCO, we believe AI is a core enabler of how work gets done. All employees are expected to proactively adopt and responsibly use AI tools to drive efficiency, improve outcomes, and continuously evolve how they operate in their role. Are you ready to help us fulfill our mission to use technology to strengthen the rule of law? Join us! We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Platform Staff Engineer - UK employer: DISCO
DISCO is an exceptional employer that fosters an open, inclusive, and fun work environment, making it an ideal place for an Associate Project Manager to thrive. With competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits including medical and dental insurance, and opportunities for growth within a revolutionary startup in the legal industry, employees are empowered to leverage AI technologies while contributing to meaningful projects. Join DISCO to be part of a team that values collaboration and innovation in transforming the legal landscape.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Platform Staff Engineer - UK
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at DISCO or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to DISCO.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like DISCO.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like DISCO that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Platform Staff Engineer - UK
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at DISCO.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at DISCO and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at DISCO
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If DISCO uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
