Backend Developer – AI Team in Manchester

Location: This role can be primarily remote, with in-person meetings around once per month in Manchester or Liverpool. Fletchers have offices in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bolton, Southport, Newcastle, Reading, Birmingham, Northampton, and Cambridge.

Overview: We are looking for a Backend Developer to join our expanding AI team at Fletchers Solicitors. This role sits within a fast-paced, high-autonomy environment where we are rapidly prototyping, iterating, and deploying state-of-the-art AI products for use across Fletchers and the wider legal sector. The team operates as a start-up-style unit within the wider business, reporting directly to the executive team, with a clear mandate to move quickly from idea to production.

You will be responsible for building and maintaining the backend systems and web applications that support the development, testing, deployment, and scaling of our Machine Learning and Large Language Model-based tools, and for helping to transform these into robust, market-ready products. We have ambitious plans to grow the AI team significantly over the next few years as we expand our internal capabilities and commercialise our technology externally.

Main Responsibilities:

• Take ownership of backend services and applications that support the development, testing, deployment, and monitoring of ML-enabled products.
• Contribute to infrastructure and architecture decisions by developing a strong understanding of business and product needs.
• Maintain and extend existing, and build new APIs to support evolving product requirements.
• Collaborate closely with product, data science, infrastructure, and frontend teams to deliver end-to-end solutions.
• Work directly with internal users and stakeholders to scope, prioritise, and resolve issues and bugs.
• Enable ML development through efficient and scalable data integrations from diverse sources, including case management systems, unstructured documents (Word, PDF), and SQL databases.

Requirements:

• Strong proficiency in Python, with experience designing and building backend systems and web apps (proficiency with at least one Python web framework is desirable).
• 3+ years experience as a software developer, backend engineer, or Python developer. Strong candidates with less should still apply.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision, demonstrating strong ownership, prioritisation, and delivery focus.
• Strong communication skills and sound engineering judgement.
• Based in the UK, with the ability to attend in-person team meetings approximately once per month.
• Fluency in English.

Desirable Skills And Experience:

• Experience designing and deploying infrastructure (e.g. cloud environments, containers, CI/CD pipelines, secure networking, or databases).
• Start-up or greenfield experience, particularly building backend systems or data environments from scratch.
• Experience operating with solutions at scale.
• Exposure to frontend technologies (e.g. TypeScript, React).
• Previous experience with Azure.
• Familiarity with Machine Learning concepts and workflows.

In Return Fletchers Offers:

• 35 hours working week.
• Bonus scheme (subject to targets being met).
• 35 days holiday a year including bank holidays and Christmas Closure, with an option to purchase up to 3 extra days’ holiday per year.
• Pension scheme with tax-efficient salary sacrifice option.
• Life Assurance Policy.
• Medicash policy to cover some dental, optical and other medical expenses.
• Company sick pay.
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity and IVF schemes.
• Flexible, agile working environment with a positive work-life balance.
• Varied calendar of funded company social events.
• Monthly voucher awards for winning nominees.
• A genuinely supportive and friendly culture.
• Ongoing training and professional development opportunities.

Fletchers is an inclusive employer with a diverse workforce: we welcome applications from any and all backgrounds. We’re committed to providing a culture and environment where everyone can thrive, understanding and celebrating that no colleague is the same.