At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the design and development of scalable backend systems for our Investment Platform.
- Company: Join St. James's Place, a diverse and inclusive employer committed to innovation.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay, flexible working, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with a focus on continuous improvement and modern engineering practices.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in finance technology while shaping the future of investment operations.
- Qualifications: Strong experience in Python, SQL, and cloud-native solutions; asset management background preferred.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
This job is with St.
James's Place, an inclusive employer and a member of my Gwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.
Please do not contact the recruiter directly.
About the role
The Investment Platforms team bridges the gap between Investments and Technology, partnering closely with the Investment Directorate and Investment Operations teams to deliver technology change and operate platform systems that underpin our Investment Proposition.
They manage a diverse and specialist technology landscape, including discrete applications, platform technologies, underlying data stores, market data solutions, and 3rd party managed services.
The team works with the broader technology community to ensure Investment systems are scalable, secure, and aligned with business priorities, enabling innovation and operational excellence across the investment lifecycle.
As a Senior Backend Engineer (Investment Platform), you will play a key role in designing, building and enhancing the technology that underpins our Investment Platform.
You'll lead the development, ongoing maintenance and operations of scalable, secure and resilient backend systems, data repositories and integrations, working closely with Dev Ops and Full Stack engineers to ensure backend services support the needs of our investment teams and wider business.
Working closely with architects, engineers and business stakeholders, you will provide technical leadership across the platform, defining engineering standards & best practices, automation and continuous improvement.
You'll help shape the future direction of the platform, delivering innovative solutions that enhance investment operations, support data-driven decision-making and maintain the highest standards of performance, stability and compliance.
What you'll be doing
- Leading the technical design, development, and evolution of Investment Platform services, integrations, data platforms, and cloud-native solutions.
- Defining, promoting and enforcing engineering standards, best practices, and architectural principles across the Investment Platform.
- Providing technical leadership throughout the software development lifecycle, from solution design through deployment and operational support.
- Designing scalable, resilient, and secure backend services, APIs, and data pipelines capable of supporting business growth and increasing platform complexity.
- Acting as the technical lead for significant platform initiatives, ensuring successful delivery of complex cross-functional projects.
- Mentoring and coaching engineers, providing guidance on software design, quality engineering, cloud engineering, and platform architecture.
- Partnering with Platform and Enterprise Architects to define future-state architectures and technology roadmaps.
- Driving adoption of modern engineering practices including Dev Sec Ops, Infrastructure as Code, observability, automated testing, and CI/CD.
- Leading investigation and resolution of critical production incidents, identifying root causes and implementing preventative improvements.
- Evaluating emerging technologies and provide recommendations on their adoption to improve platform capability, performance, scalability, and risk management.
- Ensuring platform solutions meet regulatory, security, governance, and operational resilience requirements.
- Acting as the senior technical SME for Investment Platform backend technologies across Technology, Data, Architecture, and Vendor Management teams.
- Influencing technical decision-making, balancing business priorities, technical debt, operational risk, and long-term platform sustainability.
- Championing automation, innovation, and continuous improvement initiatives, particularly through an SRE lens, across the Investment Technology estate.
About you
We're looking for a highly skilled Backend Engineer with a strong background in data engineering, integrations and backend cloud platform services.
You'll be passionate about building scalable, resilient solutions and defining standards and procedures to solve complex technical challenges.
You'll bring experience from an asset management environment, with the ability to work closely with both investment teams, platform engineers, and broader technology teams to deliver high-quality data and integration solutions.
Essential Criteria
- Strong experience designing, building and supporting scalable data and backend platform solutions using Python and SQL
- Experience working within Asset Management, Investment Management or a closely related Financial Services organisation, with an understanding of the data, operational and regulatory challenges that underpin investment platforms.
- Proven hands on experience owning Airflow and dbt end-to-end, including designing DAGs and dbt projects, setting standards, and running, upgrading and supporting them end to end.
- Proven experience delivering cloud native data and integration solutions on AWS.
- Strong understanding of data architecture, integration and ETL/ELT design patterns, with the ability to select and implement approaches appropriate to business, operational and technical requirements.
- Experience implementing modern software engineering practices, including Infrastructure as Code, automated testing and CI/CD pipelines.
- Demonstrable experience establishing engineering standards, providing technical leadership and mentoring engineers to improve engineering quality, consistency and delivery outcomes.
- Strong experience operating production platforms, including monitoring, observability, incident management and root cause analysis, with a focus on automation and continuous improvement.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear and actionable recommendations for business and investment stakeholders.
Desirable Criteria
- Experience working with investment data domains such as portfolio holdings, securities, pricing, benchmarks, transactions or market data, and an understanding of how this information is consumed across the investment lifecycle.
- Experience working with Snowflake and an appreciation of its capabilities as a modern cloud data platform.
- Experience integrating with third-party investment technology platforms and market data providers such as Bloomberg, Fact Set, Aladdin or similar vendor ecosystems.
- Experience contributing to platform architecture roadmaps, engineering governance or long-term technology strategy within a large-scale enterprise environment.
- Familiarity with Linux-based development environments and the tools commonly used to support modern cloud engineering practices.
- Knowledge of Domain-Driven Design, software design patterns and architectural principles that support the development of maintainable and scalable platforms.
Senior Backend Engineer (Investment Platform) employer: St. James's Place
St. James’s Place is an excellent employer, offering a dynamic work culture that prioritises employee well-being and professional growth. Located in Cirencester, this hybrid role as a Data Privacy Manager not only provides competitive benefits such as parental leave and health insurance but also fosters an environment where employees can thrive through collaboration and engagement with diverse stakeholders in the regulated financial services sector.
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We think this is how you could land Senior Backend Engineer (Investment Platform)
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We think you need these skills to ace Senior Backend Engineer (Investment Platform)
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 St. James's Place.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at St. James's Place 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 St. James's Place
✨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 St. James's Place 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.
