At a Glance
- Tasks: Join a dynamic team to create innovative software solutions and lead technical design.
- Company: Forward-thinking tech company embracing AI for software engineering.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, unlimited holiday, private medical insurance, and personal development budget.
- Other info: Flexible volunteering days and opportunities to work abroad.
- Why this job: Shape the future of software with AI and make a real impact on projects.
- Qualifications: Experience in resilient software delivery, Java expertise, and a passion for AI.
The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 £ per year.
The role involves working in one of our cross-functional, empowered engineering teams. Each team owns its part of the product and makes decisions jointly, alongside Product, Sales and other customer advocates. You will create new solutions to difficult problems and help take the platform to the next level. As a Senior Engineer, you will be a subject matter expert across multiple areas of the platform, involved in cross-team technical design, and independently responsible for the full lifecycle of the projects you deliver.
At this level, we expect your impact to reach beyond your own work: lifting your immediate team and raising the bar across engineering as a whole through technical leadership, reviews and mentoring. We also want you to help shape how we build. AI is already core to our product, and it is changing how we engineer software just as fast. We want someone with the curiosity and judgement to help us adopt it well, across how the whole team designs, builds, tests and ships.
Working with AI at Duco, we see AI as a genuine lever for how good teams build software, not a gimmick. We have made a strong start, with much more to build. A growing part of that is harness engineering: designing the environments, constraints and feedback loops that let AI coding agents work reliably at scale, so engineers shift from writing every line to designing the systems that govern how agents write code. It is a chance to apply what you know and keep learning as we build the future.
In this role you will:
- Use AI tools effectively in your own work, from writing and reviewing code to debugging and documentation.
- Help shape our pipelines and harness: guides, validation loops, test generation, CI/CD and quality gates that make AI‑assisted work reliable for the whole team.
- Bring ideas, and a healthy scepticism for hype, on where AI adds real value and where it does not.
- Champion safe, responsible use that respects code quality, security, data handling and our engineering standards.
You need not have done all of this before. Curiosity, judgement and a few real examples will go a long way.
Main areas of responsibility:
- Deliver features into the core product, across all areas of the technology stack.
- Own the full lifecycle of your work: design, development, deployment and ongoing support.
- Lead spikes and technical design for work that spans more than one team or domain.
- Code review your peers' contributions and give clear, constructive feedback.
- Tackle gnarly data manipulation and scaling problems with a team of very bright people.
- Mentor engineers and lift capability across the wider engineering function, including in how we use AI.
Requirements:
- Experience delivering and supporting resilient software that scales, in a multi-language, multi-technology stack.
- Deep experience with Java or another statically-typed language, and familiarity with a web framework (Spring Boot or Ruby on Rails).
- Strong skills in automated testing (unit, end-to-end, performance, stress) and a high bar for quality.
- Working knowledge of SQL and relational database concepts at scale, including performance optimisation.
- Technical or team leadership experience, with practical experience of service-oriented architectures and container-based deployment (e.g. Kubernetes, Helm).
- A genuine interest in using AI to improve software engineering, with ideas (and ideally hands‑on experience) for applying it individually and across a team's pipeline.
Beneficial:
- Aptitude with CI/CD pipelines (GitLab preferred) and cloud computing, preferably AWS.
- Experience with harness engineering or integrating AI / LLM-based tooling into a workflow or CI/CD pipeline, or with AI-assisted code review, test generation or developer productivity tooling.
- Experience of architectural migration (e.g. service extraction or refactoring) and feeding observability or metrics systems.
We offer a market standard salary aligned with your skills and experience, reviewed annually, along with performance-based bonus payments, private medical insurance for employees, healthcare cashback scheme, and death in service cover. Additional benefits include an Employee Assistance Programme, unlimited annual holiday, opportunity to work abroad for up to 6 weeks per country per year, enhanced family leave provisions, personal learning and development opportunities, referral bonus, Employee Equity Purchase Scheme, volunteering days off, and salary sacrifice schemes.
Senior Engineer employer: Duco
At Duco, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration. Our cross-functional teams empower engineers to take ownership of their projects, while our commitment to AI integration ensures that you will be at the forefront of technological advancement. With generous benefits like unlimited annual holiday, personal development budgets, and opportunities for international work, we support your growth and well-being in a dynamic and rewarding environment.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Engineer
✨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 Duco 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 Duco.
✨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 Duco.
✨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 Duco 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 Senior Engineer
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 Duco.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Duco 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 Duco
✨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 Duco 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.