Role Overview

The Senior Software Engineering Manager: Backend is responsible for leading the design, development, optimisation, and governance of backend systems and services that support digital platforms, enterprise applications, and business capabilities.

This role provides technical leadership and strategic direction for backend engineering teams, ensuring backend solutions are secure, scalable, resilient, and aligned with enterprise architecture principles. The position combines deep technical expertise with engineering leadership, delivery management, governance, and continuous improvement responsibilities.

The successful candidate will drive modern backend engineering practices, including cloud-native development, microservices architecture, API-first design, event-driven solutions, and automation, while ensuring operational excellence and delivery quality.

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Key Responsibilities

1. Backend Strategy & Leadership

• Define and execute the backend engineering strategy, roadmap, and technical direction aligned with enterprise technology objectives.
• Lead modernization initiatives including:
  • Cloud-native services
  • Microservices architecture
  • Event-driven architecture
  • API-first development
  • Distributed systems design
• Establish backend engineering standards, frameworks, and integration patterns across engineering teams.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance on backend architecture decisions.
• Drive adoption of modern software engineering practices and technologies.

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2. Backend Platform Delivery

• Oversee the design, development, testing, deployment, and support of:
  • APIs
  • Backend services
  • Databases
  • Middleware platforms
  • Enterprise application services
• Ensure backend systems are:
  • Secure
  • Scalable
  • Highly available
  • Reliable
  • Optimised for performance
• Drive adoption of engineering practices including:
  • CI/CD automation
  • Containerisation
  • Kubernetes orchestration
  • Infrastructure-as-Code
  • DevOps practices
• Govern API lifecycle management, including:
  • API design standards
  • Versioning
  • Documentation
  • Developer portal practices
• Ensure backend solutions support seamless integration with digital channels, applications, and enterprise platforms.

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3. Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure backend systems comply with security, privacy, regulatory, and organisational standards.
• Establish and promote secure backend development practices.
• Implement observability frameworks covering:
  • Logging
  • Monitoring
  • Distributed tracing
  • Performance analytics
• Ensure backend engineering practices align with enterprise governance, risk, security, and compliance frameworks.
• Promote resilience engineering and operational best practices.

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4. Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, coach, and mentor backend engineering managers, architects, and software engineers.
• Build and maintain high-performing backend engineering teams.
• Promote a culture of:
  • Engineering excellence
  • Continuous learning
  • Innovation
  • Accountability
  • Collaboration
• Establish career development pathways and technical growth opportunities for backend engineers.
• Encourage collaboration between backend, frontend, mobile, architecture, infrastructure, and product teams.
• Support knowledge sharing and adoption of engineering best practices.

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5. Stakeholder & Vendor Management

• Collaborate with enterprise architecture, infrastructure, security, product, and delivery teams to deliver scalable backend capabilities.
• Manage relationships with technology vendors, API providers, middleware partners, and strategic suppliers.
• Participate in architecture reviews, engineering governance forums, and technology leadership discussions.
• Provide technical updates, delivery insights, risks, and recommendations to senior stakeholders.
• Ensure vendor solutions align with enterprise technology standards and business objectives.

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Educational Qualifications

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in:
  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Systems
  • Related technical discipline

Preferred

• Postgraduate qualification such as:
  • MSc in Engineering / Information Technology
  • MBA or equivalent leadership qualification

Professional Certifications (Preferred)

Cloud Certifications

• AWS Certified Developer / Solutions Architect
• Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect
• Google Cloud Professional Engineer

API & Integration Certifications

• MuleSoft
• Apigee
• Kafka
• Equivalent API and integration certifications

Agile Certifications

• Scrum Master
• SAFe Practitioner
• Agile delivery certifications

DevOps Certifications

• Docker
• Kubernetes
• CI/CD platform certifications

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Relevant Experience

• 10–12 years’ experience in backend software engineering, application development, or enterprise technology delivery.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in engineering leadership roles.
• Proven experience designing, developing, and managing large-scale backend systems and distributed architectures.
• Strong hands-on expertise with:
  • SQL and NoSQL databases
  • Microservices architecture
  • APIs
  • Message queues
  • Integration frameworks
  • Distributed systems
• Demonstrated experience implementing:
  • Cloud-native architectures
  • Event-driven architectures
  • Scalable backend platforms
• Strong understanding of backend observability, performance optimisation, reliability engineering, and security practices.
• Experience managing engineering delivery pipelines, budgets, and technology vendor relationships.
• Experience working in enterprise-scale technology environments.

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Core Skills & Competencies

Technical Expertise

• Backend architecture and engineering
• API design and management
• Microservices architecture
• Distributed systems
• Database design and optimisation
• Event-driven architecture
• Cloud-native application development
• Integration patterns
• Software scalability and performance optimisation

Security & Governance

• Secure software development practices
• Enterprise security requirements
• Data protection principles
• Compliance standards
• Risk management
• Operational resilience

Leadership & Management

• Engineering strategy development
• Technical leadership
• Team building and mentoring
• Delivery management
• Stakeholder engagement
• Vendor management

Personal Attributes

• Strong strategic and technical leadership capability
• Excellent problem-solving skills
• Ability to balance innovation with reliability and governance
• Strong communication and influencing skills
• Collaborative and customer-focused mindset
• Passion for engineering excellence and continuous improvement