Backend Software Engineer 2 (UK)

About Us

Sophos is a cybersecurity leader defending 600,000 organizations globally with an AI-driven platform and expert-led services. Sophos meets organizations wherever they are in their security maturity and grows with them to defeat cyberattacks. Its solutions combine machine learning, automation, and real-time threat intelligence with frontline human expertise from Sophos X-Ops to deliver advanced, 24/7 threat monitoring, detection, and response. Sophos offers industry-leading managed detection and response (MDR) alongside a comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity technologies — including endpoint, network, email, and cloud security, extended detection and response (XDR), identity threat detection and response (ITDR), and next-gen SIEM. Together with expert advisory services, these capabilities help organizations proactively reduce risk and respond faster, with the visibility and scalability needed to stay ahead of evolving threats.

Sophos goes to market with a global partner ecosystem, including Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), resellers and distributors, marketplace integrations, and cyber risk partners, giving organizations the flexibility to choose trusted relationships when securing their business. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com.

Role Summary

This role sits within the CISO Advantage team, building a product that democratises access to enterprise grade cybersecurity leadership for organisations of all sizes. As a Software Engineer, you will contribute to designing, developing, testing, and maintaining high-quality software components. You will work closely with senior engineers, support product delivery, and continually build your technical skills while learning best practices in cloud native engineering, security, and scalable system development.

What You Will Do

• Contribute to the design and implementation of product features that align with technical strategy, quality standards, and functional requirements.
• Develop clean, maintainable code along with corresponding automated tests.
• Participate in release planning, providing reliable estimations and delivering work that meets scope and quality expectations.
• Engage in code reviews and other collaborative engineering practices.
• Take part in daily standups, sprint ceremonies, and retrospective discussions.
• Participate in security reviews of new development to help ensure compliance with Sophos security requirements and industry best practices.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues, escalating complex problems to more senior team members when appropriate.

What You Will Bring

Essential

• Practical experience building backend services or APIs in a modern programming language (TypeScript preferred but not required).
• Good understanding of API design, request/response lifecycles, and common integration patterns.
• Experience writing clean, maintainable code accompanied by automated tests.
• Awareness of secure coding practices, authentication/authorization concepts, and cloud native development.
• Ability to debug production issues methodically and collaborate with senior engineers on complex problems.
• Solid problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills.
• Experience using test automation frameworks (e.g. Mocha, Jest).
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Desirable

• TypeScript backend development experience using Node.js/TypeScript for API or service layer development, understanding runtime considerations, type driven development, dependency injection, and module architecture.
• Microservice architecture familiarity with distributed system concepts such as service boundaries, interservice communication, API gateways, observability, logging/metrics, configuration management, and handling failure modes gracefully (timeouts, retries, backoff, circuit breakers).
• PostgreSQL (RDBMS) understanding of relational schema design, indexing strategies, query optimization, transactions, database migrations, and ORMs or query builders commonly used with TypeScript (Prisma, Drizzle, Knex).
• Experience with containerized development workflows (Docker and Kubernetes), cloud platforms, or serverless components.
• Knowledge of messaging systems or event-driven patterns is a plus.
• Experience with automated testing and CI/CD pipelines.

Ready to Join Us?

At Sophos, we believe in the power of diverse perspectives to fuel innovation. Research shows that candidates sometimes hesitate to apply if they don't check every box in a job description. We challenge that notion. Your unique experiences and skills might be exactly what we need to enhance our team. Don't let a checklist hold you back – we encourage you to apply.

What's Great About Sophos?

• Sophos operates a remote-first working model, making remote work the primary option for most employees. However, some roles may necessitate a hybrid approach. While we are a remote first organization, applicants must have legal authorization to work in the jurisdiction where the position is posted, without requiring employer sponsorship.
• Our people – we innovate and create, all of which are accompanied by a great sense of fun and team spirit.
• Employee-led diversity and inclusion networks that build community and provide education and advocacy.
• Annual charity and fundraising initiatives and volunteer days for employees to support local communities.
• Global employee sustainability initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint.
• Global fitness and trivia competitions to keep our bodies and minds sharp.
• Global wellbeing days for employees to relax and recharge.
• Monthly wellbeing webinars and training to support employee health and wellbeing.

Our Commitment To You

We’re proud of the diverse and inclusive environment we have at Sophos, and we’re committed to ensuring equality of opportunity. We believe that diversity, combined with excellence, builds a better Sophos, so we encourage applicants who can contribute to the diversity of our team. All applicants will be treated in a fair and equal manner and in accordance with the law regardless of gender, sex, gender reassignment, marital status, race, religion or belief, color, age, military veteran status, disability, pregnancy, maternity or sexual orientation. We want to give you every opportunity to show us your best self, so if there are any adjustments we could make to the recruitment and selection process to support you, please let us know.

Data Protection

If you choose to explore an opportunity, and subsequently share your CV or other personal details with Sophos, these details will be held by Sophos for 12 months in accordance with our Privacy Policy and used by our recruitment team to contact you regarding this or other relevant opportunities at Sophos. If you would like Sophos to delete or update your details at any time, please follow the steps set out in the Privacy Policy describing your individual rights. For more information on Sophos’ data protection practices, please consult our Privacy Policy.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.