Role: Advanced Specialist Software Engineer(.NET/React/Azure/AWS)
Division: Assessment & Qualifications Delivery
Location: Rotherham, Manchester or Oxford, UK
About the job
As a Advanced Specialist Software Engineer at this tier is recognized for deep technical expertise and is trusted to design, implement, and optimize the most complex modules of critical business applications or back-end infrastructure. They independently drive the technical direction of high‑stakes projects, provide authoritative guidance during architecture reviews, and collaborate with product owners to align solutions with business strategy. These engineers act as subject‑matter mentors, reviewing the work of peers, and are frequently sought for advice during performance tuning or incident investigations. Their decisions exert measurable influence over team priorities and software design choices, but they remain focused on technical and mentoring rather than people leadership. They hold accountability for the resilience and scalability of systems that underpin essential revenue streams or user‑facing platforms, and are relied upon to avert technical risks before they escalate.
About you
We'd expect that you can demonstrate delivery of several business‑critical projects as a full‑stack developer, developing solutions that provide real benefit to users, and working in an Agile project delivery environment using Scrum. High performance at this tier is evidenced by the successful delivery of technically challenging features, production deployments with negligible downtime, and measurable improvements in application scalability or response times. Your code consistently passes critical peer and architectural reviews, and your work is accompanied by comprehensive, maintainable documentation. Incidents related to areas you own are resolved rapidly and without recurrence, and you are frequently cited as an enabler of major business projects through your technical input and mentorship.
Key Responsibilities
* Develop and maintain backend services and APIs using .NET, ensuring reliability, scalability, and security.
* Build and support user interfaces with React, integrating seamlessly with backend systems.
* Leverage AWS, Azure, Terraform, and Docker to deliver cloud‑native, containerized solutions.
* Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to translate business requirements into practical technical solutions.
* Analyse and optimise application performance, proactively identifying and resolving issues to ensure reliability and scalability.
* Contribute to software quality through thorough testing, code reviews, and lifecycle management.
* Drive technical direction for complex projects.
* Mentor peers and review code.
* Optimize critical business applications.
* Deliver challenging features and smooth deployments.
* Improve scalability and resolve incidents quickly.
* Champion best practices and foster a learning environment.
Key Skills & Experience
* Deep technical expertise in software design, API management, DevOps, and cloud computing.
* Experience building backend services and Web APIs using C# with .NET.
* Experience with React and modern JavaScript frameworks.
* Hands‑on experience with AWS, Azure, Terraform, and Docker.
* Strong understanding of software design principles and system integration.
* Proactively recommend improvements and shepherd features from backlog refinement through to release.
* Problem‑solving mindset with a focus on delivering practical, innovative solutions.
* Commitment to continuous learning and adaptability in a fast‑paced environment.
* Applying development methodologies such as TDD, CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure as Code.
* Mentor more junior members in overall software development.
* Work with product owners and business analysts to refine and estimate requirements.
* Work with project managers, product owners and operation teams to ensure applications are successfully delivered to production.
* Provide production support.
* Persist data using relational (SQL) and/or document databases.
* Design highly performant systems.
* Understand modern application architectures (Microservice / SOA).
* Provide overall software architecture guidance in terms of best practice.
Desirable Skills, Qualifications & Experience
* Microsoft certifications (e.g., Azure Developer Associate, Solutions Architect Expert).
* Experience developing shared libraries or reusable components.
* Familiarity with backend integration, cloud platforms, containers, and containerisation.
* Jenkins.
* NodeJS.
Job Location and Hours
The role is aligned to our Manchester, Rotherham, or Oxford offices. Our Rotherham office is located at Junction 1 of the M18.
We work a 37.5‑hour week, with all team members free to flex their day around our core hours (Monday to Friday, 10 to 4 GMT/BST). School runs and other flexible needs can be accommodated. Part‑time working and non‑traditional hours are also considered.
We actively encourage staff to participate in at least 40 hours of training a year and offer relevant training and certification as part of this role.
Your benefits and rewards
* 25 days annual leave (increasing by 1 day with every year of continuous service up to 30 days).
* Private pension plan where we pay double what you contribute, up to 16% depending on your age.
* Life, private medical and dental care insurance options, plus free eye tests.
* Stock/share purchase options.
* Maternity, paternity, and family care leave and flexible working policies.
* Employee wellbeing assistance programme.
* Cycle‑to‑work programme, volunteering days, gym membership concessions in selected office locations, and retail & leisure discounts.
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