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 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 Waracles 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 youd be incredible in the role then apply - even if you dont think you tick every box.

What Youll 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 environmentsparticularly 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. Heres a glimpse of what you can expect:

• Rest & Recharge: Youll 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 youre 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. Youll 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.