Robert Half
Robert Half Technology are assisting a leading UK media organisation to recruit a Backend Engineer on a 6-12 month contract.
We are hiring a Senior Backend Engineer to lead the evolution of a global platform supporting international expansion and acquisition integration.
This role focuses on building and scaling transaction systems that enable global commerce, while evolving an existing real-time platform to support new markets. You will address backend capacity constraints and help design a shared transaction and ledger layer used across multiple business lines.
This is a hands-on senior engineering role requiring both high-quality delivery and strong technical leadership in ambiguous, high-scale environments.
You will be expected to:
- Design scalable systems with correctness and failure modes considered from the outset
- Clarify and scope requirements before proposing solutions
- Make pragmatic trade-offs in system design, avoiding over-engineering
- Operate independently without reliance on AI tooling for core problem solving
- Fully understand, explain, and defend all systems and code you produce
Role
- The Backend Engineer will be responsible for designing and scaling systems supporting multi-currency, cross-border transactions
- Building and extending a shared transaction and ledger layer
- Supporting integration of newly acquired platform capabilities
- Designing APIs for frontend, mobile, and seller platform use cases (REST and GraphQL)
- Handling complex transaction logic including:
- Currency conversion
- Fees and commissions
- Reconciliation
- Refunds and adjustments
- Supporting region-specific requirements such as tax, shipping, and compliance
- Improving performance and scalability of real-time transaction systems
- Identifying bottlenecks and evolving platform architecture as demand grows
Profile
You will operate within a modern distributed systems environment spanning multiple services, languages, and architectural patterns. The role combines hands-on ownership of backend services with architectural leadership responsibilities.
- Elixir and the Phoenix framework
- GraphQL
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- WebSockets and Phoenix Channels for real-time communication
- Message-driven architectures and asynchronous processing patterns
- Cloud-native infrastructure supporting globally distributed workloads
You may interact with services and systems built in:
- Python
- Go
- Java
- Kotlin
- C#
- TypeScript / Node.js
- Ruby
- Rust
API Design
-
You will design, build, and consume:
- RESTful APIs
- GraphQL APIs
Company
- UK's market leading media organisation with offices in London
- Hybrid working
Salary & Benefits
The salary range/rates of pay is dependent upon your experience, qualifications or training.
Robert Half Ltd acts as an employment business for temporary positions and an employment agency for permanent positions. Robert Half is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. Suitable candidates with equivalent qualifications and more or less experience can apply. Rates of pay and salary ranges are dependent upon your experience, qualifications and training. If you wish to apply, please read our Privacy Notice describing how we may process, disclose and store your personal data:
To apply for this job please visit www.reed.co.uk.
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