Staff Backend Engineer

Fresha; City of London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading marketplace platform in London is looking for a Senior Staff Backend Engineer. The role involves hands-on coding, leading technical initiatives, and ensuring project delivery. Candidates should have a proven track record of delivering complex systems and fostering collaboration. This is a full-time position with the opportunity for one remote day per week.

Qualifications

• Proven track record delivering large systems involving multiple teams.
• Ability to break down complex problems into solutions.
• Experience shaping multi-year technology strategy.

Responsibilities

• Own and deliver cross-team technical initiatives.
• Ensure timely delivery of your team's projects.
• Lead from the front by following engineering practices.

Skills

Hands-on coding skills

Problem-solving

Debugging skills

Strong cross-functional collaboration

Proactive approach

Job description

Overview

Staff Backend Engineer role at Fresha.

Fresha is the leading marketplace platform for beauty & wellness trusted by millions of consumers and businesses worldwide. Fresha is used by 130,000+ businesses and 450,000+ stylists and professionals worldwide, processing over 1 billion appointments to date. The company is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with 15 global offices located across North America, EMEA and APAC. Fresha enables consumers to discover, book and pay for beauty and wellness appointments with local businesses via its marketplace, while businesses use an all-in-one platform to manage operations with software and financial technology solutions.

Role introduction

We are looking for an exceptional Senior Staff Backend Engineer to join our global team. You will report to the Head of Engineering for a tribe and work with key stakeholders. You will be accountable for technical vision, strategy and execution in your team and proactively manage technical risks at Fresha. This role offers a fast-paced, changing environment with autonomy, a challenge and potential impact. All Fresha employees work from our dog-friendly office four days per week, with one remote day per week.

What You Will Be Doing

• Technical — Hands-on coding skills are required; this is not a management role
• Leadership — Own and deliver cross-team and cross-tribal technical initiatives
• Architectural — Take ownership of architecture for a tribe
• Guidance — Provide technical guidance; anticipate technical issues at the product level and make architectural and design decisions to avoid them
• Improvements — Create sweeping improvements in stability, performance and scalability across major business-critical systems
• Delivery — Ensure timely delivery of your team’s projects with tangible impact on Fresha’s success
• Lead-by-example — Ensure your team follows Fresha engineering practices by leading from the front
• Collaboration — Work with Product, Design, Data and QA to deliver value to users
• Learning — Facilitate continuous learning and improvement for the team
• Standards — Ensure systems meet Fresha quality, reliability and scalability standards
• Innovative — Anticipate broad technical changes and keep Fresha ahead of the curve
• Strategic — Understand the whole system, articulate scaling and reliability limits, and make conscious trade-offs
• Multiplier — Build systems, tools or patterns that raise productivity across the organization
• Communication — Represent Fresha in external tech communities and guide internal direction through talks and content; drive consensus on major technical directions

What We Are Looking For

• Delivery — Proven track record delivering large systems involving multiple teams on time and at high quality
• Problem-solving — Ability to break down complex problems into solutions and unknowns
• Debugging — Skillful at debugging challenging issues
• Strategy — Experience shaping multi-year technology strategy for critical areas
• Adaptability — Architecture that supports multiple futures
• Relationships — Strong cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder influence
• Facilitation — Guiding debates to reach consensus and clearly communicating decisions
• Planning — Define 6–12 month technical direction and prioritize improvements
• Mentorship — Seen as a role model and mentor to technical staff
• Contribution — Prolific contributor to core and side projects
• Simplification — Reduce complexity to increase team productivity
• Architecture — Shaped broad architecture and delivered major services or infrastructure
• Impact — Positive impact on the company’s technical trajectory
• Team-player — Willingness to roll up sleeves and assist the team
• Proactive — Self-starter with a proactive approach
• Adaptive — Comfortable in a fast-paced, changing environment

Interview Process

• Screening with TA: 45-60 minutes
• Part 1: 60 minutes with CTO & Chief Architect (Culture fit & high-level tech)
• Part 2: 2.5 hours technical stage with Head of Data Engineering + 1 Backend Engineer
• Part 3: 1 hour meeting with Head of Engineering / CTO / Chief Architect

We aim to complete the entire interview process and deliver feedback within 4 weeks. We review every application manually and strive to assess timely, though high volume may extend this timeframe.

Inclusive workforce

At Fresha, we are creating a culture where individuals of all backgrounds feel comfortable. Everyone who applies will receive fair consideration for employment. We do not discriminate based on race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, gender identity, national origin, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic in the location of the candidate’s application. If you have accessibility requirements, please let us know so we can support you during the interview process and after joining.

Job details

• Seniority level: Mid-Senior level
• Employment type: Full-time
• Job function: Engineering and Information Technology
• Industries: Software Development