At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and optimise backend services for AI-powered financial workflows.
- Company: Join Translucent, a cutting-edge tech startup revolutionising financial data processing.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, flexible work options, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Be part of a fast-paced team where your ideas can drive innovation.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by shaping the future of AI in finance.
- Qualifications: 5+ years in backend engineering with strong SQL and programming skills.
The predicted salary is between 36000 - 60000 £ per year.
Translucent is building the infrastructure that lets AI work reliably with complex accounting data. Most AI fails when it hits real financial data since it is complex, inconsistent, and spread across dozens of systems. We have solved this problem by creating a platform that ingests, rebuilds, and indexes data from providers like Xero and QuickBooks, enabling developers to create AI-powered workflows that are secure, accurate, and auditable.
We already have a production system in place with live customers. Our platform processes millions of transactions daily while maintaining sub-100ms API response times, powered by PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, ElasticSearch, and Kafka-based ingestion pipelines. Now we’re expanding the platform’s capabilities, broadening the API surface, and building the next generation of developer tools on top of it.
Role overview
We are looking for an experienced Backend Engineer who loves working with data, building robust services, and optimising distributed systems. You will work across ingestion pipelines, API layers, and query engines, shaping how our platform stores, processes, and serves financial data. This is a hands-on role where you will make architectural decisions, solve scaling challenges, and design backend systems that form the foundation for AI-powered financial workflows.
What you will do
- Design, implement, and optimise backend services that power our APIs, integrations, and developer tools.
- Own database performance and reliability: schema design, indexing, query optimisation, and scaling strategies for PostgreSQL and ClickHouse.
- Build and maintain high-throughput ingestion pipelines with Kafka, transforming raw accounting data into well-structured, queryable formats.
- Develop data access APIs that make financial data securely and efficiently available to both internal services and external developers.
- Improve observability across the stack: logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting for ingestion pipelines and backend services.
- Collaborate with engineers, product, and domain experts to turn customer workflows into reliable backend systems.
- Contribute to architectural decisions across event-driven workflows, sync/transform services, indexing strategies, and search infrastructure.
- Support AI-powered workflows by ensuring data pipelines are structured, reliable, and optimised for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), schema validation, and downstream agent evaluation.
- Help design guardrails and evaluation hooks for systems where agents or customers write data back, ensuring correctness, performance, and safety.
- Explore new data architectures such as graph databases to model complex financial relationships and support emerging AI workflows.
- Work in lockstep with AI engineers to evolve Translucent into an AI-first company.
What you will bring
- 5+ years of backend engineering experience, ideally in data-intensive or high-scale systems.
- Strong skills in SQL and database design (PostgreSQL preferred), with proven experience in optimisation and scaling.
- Solid programming skills in Python, Go, Kotlin or a similar backend language.
- Experience designing and maintaining production APIs (REST/gRPC/tRPC).
- Comfort with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or similar) and containerised environments (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Understanding of data pipelines and ETL processes, working with both structured and semi-structured data.
- Exposure to AI-powered data frameworks and infra such as vector databases (Weaviate, Qdrant, Pinecone), graph databases (Neo4j, Memgraph), or model serving/routing systems (vLLM, LiteLLM).
- Familiarity with agent orchestration frameworks (LangGraph, Mastra) or AI observability tools (W&B Traces, Arize, OpenLLMetry).
- Experience building data pipelines optimised for AI workflows, e.g. embedding search, feature stores, or schema-validated outputs.
- Clear, pragmatic communication and a collaborative approach.
- An interest in joining a small, fast-moving startup where you can influence product direction and engineering culture.
Nice to have
- Experience with event-driven architectures and streaming systems (Kafka, Pub/Sub, etc.).
- Familiarity with ClickHouse, ElasticSearch, or vector databases for high-performance queries and indexing.
- Background in accounting, finance, or enterprise SaaS.
- Exposure to AI/ML-powered applications, LLM frameworks, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
Senior Backend Engineer in London employer: Translucent
Translucent is an exceptional employer for Senior Backend Engineers, offering a dynamic work environment in London where innovation meets financial technology. With a strong focus on employee growth, the company fosters a collaborative culture that encourages hands-on involvement in architectural decisions and scaling challenges, while providing opportunities to work with cutting-edge AI technologies. Employees benefit from competitive compensation, a supportive team atmosphere, and the chance to make a significant impact in a fast-paced startup setting.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Backend Engineer in London
✨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 Translucent 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 Translucent.
✨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 Translucent.
✨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 Translucent 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 Backend Engineer in London
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 Translucent.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Translucent 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 Translucent
✨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 Translucent 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.
