Software Engineer - Java/Kotlin
Software Engineer - Java/Kotlin | Backend | Integrations
Manchester (Hybrid - 2 days per week) | 6 month initial contract | £500-600pd inside IR35 | Immediate start
A leading global digital platform is building a brand-new engineering team focused on transforming how third-party integrations are delivered at scale.
This team sits at the centre of a major growth area and is rethinking how external providers connect into a marketplace ecosystem, reducing onboarding from months to days through smarter architecture, automation and AI-enabled engineering practices. We're looking for Software Engineers with strong backend engineering and automated testing experience to help shape this capability from the ground up.
The Opportunity:
Joining a newly established team, you'll work on building and scaling connectivity services that integrate with external APIs and suppliers. You'll contribute to a platform designed to simplify onboarding, improve reliability and create reusable integration patterns across a rapidly growing ecosystem. You'll work in a highly collaborative environment with Product, Commercial and Operations teams and help influence engineering standards, tooling and ways of working from day one.
What you'll be doing:
- Designing and developing backend services using Java and/or Kotlin
- Building and evolving REST APIs and integration services
- Creating scalable, reusable connectors for third-party providers
- Working with external APIs that cannot be directly controlled or changed
- Driving strong engineering standards with a focus on automated testing
- Supporting observability and operational excellence through logging, metrics and alerting
- Contributing to cloud-native deployments and modern CI/CD practices
- Helping shape repositories, tooling and engineering processes with AI-enabled development approaches
- Collaborating cross-functionally to improve provider onboarding and operational efficiency
What we're looking for:
- Strong backend engineering experience in Java and/or Kotlin
- Experience building and operating production services
- Strong capability in automated testing and test frameworks
- Experience integrating with REST/HTTP APIs and external systems
- Good understanding of distributed systems principles including:
- retries
- idempotency
- timeouts
- resilience patterns
- Experience with Docker, Kubernetes and CI/CD pipelines
- Cloud exposure (AWS preferred)
- Experience with relational databases (MySQL or similar)
- Exposure to Kafka, messaging technologies or event-driven architectures
- Comfortable working in collaborative, fast-moving environments
Nice to have:
- Experience within travel, marketplaces, ticketing, attractions or consumer platforms
- Experience building integration platforms or connectivity products
- Experience working in early-stage teams or helping establish engineering practices
- Interest in AI-assisted development and engineering productivity
If you enjoy backend engineering, solving integration challenges and building scalable platforms from the ground up, we'd love to speak with you.