Staff Software Engineer - Java (Supply Chain) in London

hackajob is collaborating with Sainsbury's DTD to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role. We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Think about the scale it takes for us to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety it involves. Then you’ll realise that ours is a modern software engineering environment because it has to be. We’ve made serious investment into a Tech Academy and into setting standards and principles. We iterate, learn, experiment and push ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to awesome opportunities in everything from AI to reusable tech.

As a Staff Engineer, you'll work across multiple engineering teams, driving technical design, elevating engineering standards and ensuring sound decision‑making across the broader Sainsbury’s Tech ecosystem. You’ll be deeply involved in the architecture and delivery of mission‑critical solutions, from microservices and integration layers to cloud‑hosted platforms powering our highly complex supply chain systems. You’ll also act as a coach, mentor and technical guide to engineering teams — helping shape talent, influence direction and drive continuous improvement.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Partnering with the Head of Engineering to define and deliver strategic outcomes across Supply Chain.
• Influencing and guiding technical decisions to ensure scalable, maintainable and secure solutions.
• Using your hands‑on engineering expertise to tackle the most challenging problems and unblock teams.
• Coaching and mentoring engineers at all levels to help them perform at their best.
• Promoting strong engineering practices, design principles and high technical standards.
• Leverage AI and intelligent automation to modernise our systems, streamline decision‑making, and ensure the organisation remains future‑fit in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.
• Working with peers across Sainsbury’s Tech to deliver cross‑domain solutions and encourage reusability.
• Supporting our engineering entry and development programmes, helping us attract and grow top talent.

Why Join Us?

• 10 million+ Nectar customers providing rich data insights
• Argos ranking as one of the UK’s busiest online retailers
• End‑to‑end supply chain technology operating at huge national scale
• Our Engineering Teams Build And Run 1,000+ microservices across AWS, Azure and GCP
• Event‑driven systems streaming billions of Kafka messages
• Scalable APIs and integrations powering real‑time decisioning

Tech You’ll Be Working With

• Java, Python, React, AWS, Kafka, Microservices, APIs, Integration, Agile

Essential Criteria

Technical Expertise

• Significant hands‑on engineering experience in backend, frontend or platform technologies.
• Strong proficiency in one or more key languages (e.g., Java, Python, React).
• Proven experience designing and delivering scalable microservices and cloud‑native solutions.
• Understanding of distributed systems, integration patterns and event‑driven architecture.
• Ability to evaluate technical decisions, spot risks and guide teams towards strong design choices.

Leadership & Influence

• Proven experience coaching, mentoring or guiding engineers across multiple levels.
• Ability to influence engineering direction across teams and domains.
• Strong communication skills, capable of building trust and alignment across stakeholders.

Ways of Working

• Proven experience working in Agile environments and supporting high‑performing, long‑lived teams.
• Ability to proactively identify improvement opportunities and drive them to completion.

Mindset & Behaviours

• Passionate about engineering excellence and continuous learning.
• Comfortable working across diverse systems and domains.
• Adaptable, collaborative and motivated by solving complex problems that deliver real value.

What’s In It For You

• Flexible working with a balanced approach to home and office
• Colleague discounts across Sainsbury’s, Argos and Habitat
• Private health cover
• Generous holiday allowance
• Bonus scheme
• Pension plan
• Discounts on gyms, restaurants, holidays, retail and more

Benefits

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, welcoming you wherever you work. You will have the chance to try something new – whether that’s as part of an evolving team or elsewhere across the business. We take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues who go the extra mile, and we offer flexible working. In addition to the colleague discounts described above, we provide a range of benefits: a pension scheme, life cover, performance‑related bonus up to 20% of salary depending on company performance, an annual holiday allowance with the option to buy additional holiday, season ticket loans, interest‑free car loan up to £10,000, cycle‑to‑work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance, access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers, employee assistance programme, and private healthcare. Maternity or adoption leave is up to 26 weeks’ pay, and paternity leave up to 4 weeks’ pay.