[Hiring] Head of Backend @SchemeServe Limited

Role Description

We're looking for an exceptional Principal Backend Engineer to help make backend engineering across SchemeServe better. You'll be one of the most technically experienced engineers in the organisation and the CTO's primary technical partner for backend engineering, helping shape our architecture, engineering principles and technical direction.

But this isn't primarily a feature delivery role and your job isn't to personally build everything you help design. Your real job is to make our engineering organisation better at building great software.

You'll work alongside engineers and teams, helping solve difficult problems, challenging their thinking and developing their technical skills and judgement.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in modern backend engineering and strong commercial C#/.NET experience.
• Strong knowledge of software architecture, distributed systems and API design.
• Experience with mature legacy applications and modern service-oriented architectures.
• Strong cloud architecture experience, ideally Azure.
• Excellent understanding of databases, security, testing, maintainability and modern software delivery.
• Experience shaping engineering principles and practices across teams.
• A track record of making engineers around you better through mentoring, coaching and technical leadership.
• The ability to challenge experienced engineers constructively without becoming a gatekeeper.
• Strong opinions, loosely held – the confidence to challenge and the humility to change your mind.
• Excellent communication and the ability to influence without relying on authority.
• Excellent technical judgement, balancing quality, complexity, risk, cost and business value.

Requirements

• Experience modernising large monolithic applications.
• Commercial TypeScript backend experience.
• Cloudflare or edge technology experience.
• SaaS platforms at scale.
• Financial services, insurance or another regulated industry.
• Observability, platform engineering or SRE experience.
• AI-assisted development and engineering productivity tooling.

Benefits

• Fully remote UK-based role.
• Twice-yearly company retreats.
• Flexible working.
• Dedicated professional development support.
• Paid charity days.
• Friendly, supportive and highly collaborative culture.
• Genuine influence over how engineering works across SchemeServe.
• Work directly with our CTO on engineering strategy and innovation.
• Monthly biscuit deliveries.

Company Description

SchemeServe is insurance software like no other. Hosted in the cloud for MGAs, brokers and insurers, the SchemeServe platform boasts unique flexibility, unstoppable innovation and truly Obsessive Support.

Started in 2000 by our CEO, Adam, SchemeServe has grown from strength to strength, never having taken outside investment. We're proud of how far we've come and how loyal we've stayed to our Core Values.

We're fully remote (we were doing it before it was fashionable!), although we get together twice a year for Team Retreats. We prize self-development and encourage everyone to keep learning and challenging themselves. Free books? Mentoring? Professional development? You got it.

We also offer flexible working, paid charity days, a fantastic, relaxed and open company culture and free biscuits through the post. We genuinely believe this is the best place you could ever work.