At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and evolve authorization services using NestJS/TypeScript and manage user/group capabilities.
- Company: Join a team building an enterprise AI platform focused on secure access and user lifecycle management.
- Benefits: Engage in a culture of mentorship and robust testing for security-sensitive logic.
- Other info: Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and event-driven architectures is essential.
- Why this job: This role is pivotal for enhancing platform reliability and enterprise security in a growing SaaS environment.
- Qualifications: 5+ years of backend engineering experience with expertise in TypeScript, Node.js, and authorization systems.
The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 £ per year.
Requirements
- 5+ years of backend engineering experience with strong expertise in TypeScript, Node.js, and structured backend frameworks such as NestJS
- Strong domain experience in authorization, identity, or user management systems in production SaaS environments
- Excellent system design skills: you can model roles, permissions, policy propagation, and service boundaries in a way that stays understandable as the platform grows
- Experience with enterprise identity concepts such as SSO, RBAC, provisioning, deprovisioning, webhooks, SCIM, or IdP integrations
- Multi-tenant SaaS experience with strong awareness of tenant isolation, auditability, and security-sensitive change management
- Event-driven systems experience: comfortable with asynchronous workflows, retries, idempotency, and eventual consistency in backend services
- Testing discipline: you write tests for critical business and security logic, not just happy paths
What the job involves
We're building an enterprise AI platform where secure access and user lifecycle management are core product capabilities. Every workspace, assistant, admin surface, and API depends on the platform correctly handling who a user is, what they can access, how roles are assigned, and how identity changes propagate across the system.
We're looking for a senior backend engineer to work on the services behind authorization and user management. This role sits at the intersection of product functionality, platform reliability, and enterprise security.
- Authorization and policy systems: Design and evolve a NestJS/TypeScript gatekeeper service with Casbin-style policies, implementing roles/groups/resource-level permissions and clean enforcement flows exposed to both UI and service-to-service consumers.
- User and group management: Build and extend user/group/role capabilities, maintain the node-scope-management service for lifecycle and inheritance, and ensure consistent, correct state across APIs, jobs, and downstream consumers.
- Identity and provisioning integrations: Own external identity integrations (e.g., Zitadel), improve sync for user/role lifecycle and deprovisioning, and implement enterprise features like external groups, SCIM-style provisioning, and metadata sync.
- Event-driven backend architecture: Design resilient async workflows (AMQP, background processing) to validate and propagate role/membership updates, with reliable retries and correct behavior under failures and partial reprocessing.
- Platform ownership: Model GraphQL/Prisma/PostgreSQL APIs with strict tenancy, enhance observability (logs/metrics/traces/alerts) for auth/identity flows, and own production delivery via Docker/Kubernetes/Helm and GitOps.
- Engineering culture: Write robust tests for security-sensitive logic, engage in design/code reviews on auth/identity boundaries, and mentor peers to raise quality, maintainability, and operational discipline.
Senior Backend Engineer (Authorization & User Management) in London employer: Unique AI
Work at a cutting-edge enterprise AI platform located in a tech hub. The team prioritises secure access and user management, fostering a culture of mentorship and quality. Enjoy the opportunity to shape the future of identity management in SaaS.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Backend Engineer (Authorization & User Management) 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 Unique AI 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 Unique AI.
✨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 Unique AI.
✨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 Unique AI 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 (Authorization & User Management) 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 Unique AI.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Unique AI 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 Unique AI
✨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 Unique AI 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.
