Principal Backend Developer

Waracle are looking for a Principal Backend Developer for an exciting new role joining our world-class digital technology consultancy and home to a diverse, smart, curious and ambitious community of specialists in technology-driven transformation.

We work with ambitious clients to help them solve their biggest business and customer challenges. We help our clients to innovate and create intelligent digital products and services. We thrive on complex challenges and deliver business-critical IT transformation projects, moving seamlessly from strategy, design and delivery to operations.

This is a Hybrid role, offering the flexibility to balance your professional and personal life, with 2 days a week spent connecting with colleagues in our London office or on client site.

The Role

As a Principal Backend Developer, you will act as a strategic technical leader, guiding and shaping robust architectures, data strategies, and cloud-native environments across multiple squads and collaborative programmes. In this role, you will champion technical excellence, making thoughtful choices that balance cost, security, performance, and user experience to help Waracle scale and deliver high-performance, world-class products.

If you are a collaborative leader who thrives on mentoring talent, fostering inclusive engineering communities, and navigating complex technical landscapes with empathy and pragmatism, we would love to welcome you to our team!

Key aspects of the role include

• Solving Complex Technical Challenges: Partner closely with client technical and business stakeholders at all levels, gaining a deep understanding of their technology estates to advise on impactful, world-class digital solutions.
• Technical Excellence & Delivery: Shape architectures across multiple squads; select tools and frameworks to scale across clients while optimising for cost, security, performance, and scalability.
• Collaboration & Stakeholder Management: Act as a trusted advisor to clients on technical strategy and roadmaps, translating complex technical concepts into clear, accessible communication for senior stakeholders.
• Leadership & Community Cultivation: Mentor Lead and Senior Engineers, foster and grow our engineering community of practice, and ensure cross-team alignment on technical standards.
• Culture & Knowledge Sharing: Define and evolve Waracle’s technical standards while contributing to our shared body of knowledge through lessons learned, thought leadership, and good practices.

Research shows that underrepresented groups tend to only apply for roles that they believe they meet 100% of the criteria for. At Waracle, we want to buck that trend! We hire for passion, potential and mindset as much as credentials. If you think you'd be incredible in the role, then apply - even if you don't think you tick every box.

What You'll Bring

• Architectural Leadership: Proven experience designing, documenting, and scaling complex back-end architectures, distributed systems, microservices, and database designs (SQL and other technologies) within cloud-native environments—particularly Azure (with a focus on API management, maintenance, and scaling).
• Technical Direction & Delivery Ownership: Strong leadership capability to set clear technical direction, maintain a dedicated ownership mindset, and foster high-standard outcomes across complex enterprise projects.
• Consultative Communication: Excellent communication and influencing skills, with a demonstrated ability to navigate complex client organisations, support diverse stakeholders, and pragmatically balance commercial constraints with high technical standards.
• Team Mentorship & Growth: A proven track record of mentoring, developing, and aligning senior engineers and technical leaders to foster a collaborative culture of continuous learning and psychological safety.
• Modern SDLC Innovation: A pragmatic, forward-thinking approach with a strong interest and enthusiasm for applying AI across the Software Development Life Cycle to enhance engineering practices and advise clients on effective adoption.

What to expect from our hiring process

1. First Hello: An informal chat with your dedicated Talent Attraction Partner to talk about Waracle, what you want out of your next move, salary, benefits, and office hybrid working model.
2. Talking Impact: A collaborative deep dive into how you solve problems, work with others, and raise the bar, guided by our core values and competency framework.
3. Craft Showcase: A chance to demonstrate your real-world expertise. Depending on the role, this will be a practical presentation.

Your Talent Attraction Partner will be in your corner through every step right up to your Welcome Ritual on day one.

Our Benefits

We believe in supporting our team, inside and outside of work. Here's a glimpse of what you can expect:

• Rest & Recharge: You'll receive 27 days of annual leave, plus 8 bank holidays, totaling 35 days of holiday to unwind and pursue your passions.
• Financial Future & Security: Plan for retirement with our company-matched 5% pension contribution. For added peace of mind, we also offer a Death in Service benefit, providing 2 x your annual salary for your loved ones.
• Health & Wellness: Our Medicash Health Cash Plans help cover everyday healthcare costs, complemented by an Employee Assistance Programme for confidential support, and Group Sickness Cover for peace of mind.
• Flexible Working: We champion hybrid working, providing a home office setup budget to ensure you're comfortable and productive wherever you are.
• Learning & Development: Invest in yourself with access to Udemy Business and a dedicated learning and development budget for continuous growth.
• Lifestyle Perks: Make the most of our Cycle to Work Scheme, and enjoy exclusive gym and retail discounts.
• Family First: Our enhanced parental leave policies include support for fertility journeys, recognising diverse family needs.
• Community & Connection: We foster a vibrant culture with regular fun meet-ups and lunch on us in the office once a month. You'll also have the opportunity to make a local impact through Spirit of Waracle, our initiative for getting involved in charitable causes locally, building strong team bonds and giving back.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, gender, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.