Senior Backend Engineer (Node.js) - London

Tesco Plc; Welwyn Garden City; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retail company is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to develop and support scalable backend services impacting millions of customers. The ideal candidate has 7+ years of experience, strong skills in Node.JS and JavaScript, and a commitment to agile methodologies. This position offers a comprehensive benefits package including an annual bonus, extensive holiday, and private medical insurance.

Benefits

Annual bonus scheme up to 20% of base salary

Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day

Private medical insurance

Free 24/7 virtual GP service

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional experience as a Backend Software Developer.
• At least 4 years of experience in backend development using JavaScript, Typescript, Node.JS.
• Experience building high-traffic applications with Express.js or similar.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy scalable backend systems.
• Collaborate with product managers to understand business requirements.
• Mentor and develop others around you.

Skills

JavaScript

Node.JS

Typescript

Cloud services

Microservices

Agile methodologies

GraphQL

REST API

Containerisation

Mentoring

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Express.js

Redis

Job description

Senior Backend Engineer (Node.js) – London

Location: London, United Kingdom.

We’re looking for a passionate, pragmatic engineer to define and develop Tesco’s xAPI (Experience API) that powers Tesco’s various shopping experiences – tesco.com, the mobile shop application, store and other internal‑facing applications. You’ll work in an agile team of industry‑leading engineers, collaborate with product and program managers, and build and extend highly scalable, maintainable, and observable backend services that impact millions of customers.

Responsibilities

• Use your in‑depth knowledge of JavaScript, Typescript, Node.JS, cloud and the backend services ecosystem to develop, and deploy scalable backend systems.
• Work with product managers to understand business/product requirements.
• Translate requirements into tasks & code.
• Commit code early and often, demonstrating understanding of version control & branching strategies.
• Automate everything by default.
• Write secure, maintainable code and observe basic hygiene practices.
• Implement relevant project instrumentation.
• Profile and optimise code.
• Apply cohesion and the SOLID principles to create well‑structured, maintainable software.
• Identify patterns in code, refactor to improve maintainability with minimal guidance.
• Produce test‑driven features and demonstrate familiarity with TDD development.
• Follow best practices of continuous BDD/TDD/performance/security/smoke testing.
• Work effectively with stakeholders to communicate and translate needs into product improvements.
• Lead group discussions on system design and understand domain well enough to drive value with Product Managers.
• Support production systems, resolve incidents and perform root‑cause analysis.
• Debug and support complex problems within the software solution.
• Share knowledge with the wider engineering community.
• Mentor and develop others around you.
• Produce proof of concepts to evaluate new tools.

Qualifications

• 7+ Years professional experience as a Backend Software Developer.
• At least 4 Years of experience in backend development using JavaScript, Typescript, Node.JS and related technologies.
• Exposure to JavaScript frameworks and libraries such as Next.JS, React.JS and testing frameworks like Jest, Mocha.JS, Cucumber.
• Experience building high‑traffic applications with Express.js, Sails, Koa or similar.
• Knowledge of microservices development and deployment in the cloud (Azure, AWS, GCP).
• Knowledge of virtualization, containerisation and orchestration technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes.
• Experience with GraphQL, building GraphQL servers and Apollo Federation.
• Experience building REST API services.
• Knowledge of distributed messaging systems like Kafka, RabbitMQ.
• Knowledge of distributed caching technologies such as Redis.
• Desire to write readable, maintainable, modular and extendable code.
• Exposure to the DevOps model.
• Experience in Lean and Agile environments and understanding of BDD, ATDD and TDD.

Benefits

• Annual bonus scheme up to 20% of base salary.
• Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus bank holidays).
• Private medical insurance.
• 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 year’s service) at full pay, 13 weeks statutory maternity/adoption pay and 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave.
• Free 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family, free access to experts for mental wellbeing.

About Us

Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer’s favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or on the move. We commit to serving our customers, communities and planet better every day, fostering an inclusive culture where everyone can be themselves.