Senior Software Engineer - Front End

Role: Senior Software Engineer - Front End

Location: London/Newcastle – Hybrid Office & Home

Who Are We?

mkodo builds world class apps, middleware and digital products in the global lottery, betting, and gaming space.

We have an open, supportive, dynamic culture where talented people are trusted to contribute to the team and company by carrying out their roles in a professional, collaborative, and skilled manner. We value the expertise of our team members and offer opportunities for personal development and career progression within the company.

Acquired in February 2020, by Pollard Banknote Limited (PBL), a major supplier to the global lottery industries, brought mkodo strong financial security, access to resources and clients at a global level.

About the role:

Reporting to a Software Engineering Manager, the Senior Software Engineer is a major contributor and technical influencer within an engineering team delivering high-quality applications and services used by thousands of customers.

As mkodo evolves, we are looking for more T-shaped engineers: not a ‘jack of all trades’ but individuals with deep expertise in one or more core engineering disciplines, combined with broad experience and adaptability across the wider software stack. While each Senior Software Engineer brings deep mastery in at least one area, they are comfortable collaborating across disciplines and contributing wherever business needs require.

Core areas of depth may include one or more of:

• Web / Front-end engineering
• Java/AWS backend and distributed systems
• React Native
• Android (Kotlin)
• iOS (Swift)

Successful candidates demonstrate deep expertise in at least one of these areas while maintaining practical experience and willingness to work across others.

This role suits engineers who are highly autonomous, delivery-focused, and capable of owning technical design and execution for complex features and systems, while contributing to team growth and technical direction.

What you’ll do:

Engineering delivery & technical ownership

• Design, build, and deliver high-quality software across mobile, web, and backend systems depending on business needs.
• Take complex product or technical problems and break them down into deliverable, well-structured solutions.
• Own the technical design and implementation of projects or features of moderate to high complexity.
• Write production-quality, well-tested, maintainable code aligned with engineering standards.
• Ensure reliability, performance, security, and scalability across systems and platforms.
• Drive investigation and resolution of complex technical issues across the stack.
• Contribute to and lead technical projects spanning multiple components or services.
• Transform and modernise legacy systems where required.

Cross-discipline contribution

• Act as a deep expert in your primary discipline while contributing across other platforms or systems.
• Collaborate effectively across web, mobile, and backend engineering to deliver cohesive solutions.
• Demonstrate adaptability and willingness to work in different parts of the stack as business priorities evolve.
• Support shared ownership of system quality and delivery across teams.

Technical leadership & influence

• Act as a technology leader within and beyond your immediate team.
• Provide clear technical direction and decision-making that supports long-term architectural health.
• Identify and drive improvements to engineering practices, tooling, and processes.
• Identify, prioritise, and reduce technical debt.
• Contribute to architecture discussions and help align teams on technical approaches.
• Support drama-free, predictable releases through strong engineering discipline.

Collaboration & delivery excellence

• Provide realistic, data-informed estimates and delivery plans.
• Break work into clear milestones and deliver predictably.
• Collaborate closely with product, design, QA, and stakeholders.
• Balance technical, product, and business trade-offs when designing solutions.
• Mentor and support other engineers through pairing, reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Contribute to hiring and team growth.

Quality, security & compliance

• Implement strong testing, monitoring, and observability practices.
• Support security and regulatory compliance (e.g., ISO27001, PCI where applicable).
• Adhere to secure coding and operational best practices.
• Ensure systems meet reliability, performance, and quality standards.

Key Skills & Attributes:

Core expectations

• Significant experience as a Senior Software Engineer or equivalent.
• Deep expertise in at least one of:
• Modern web/front-end engineering (TypeScript/JavaScript frameworks)
• React Native
• Android (Kotlin)
• iOS (Swift)
• Java/AWS backend engineering and distributed systems
• Demonstrated ability to work across multiple parts of the stack.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering principles and best practices.
• Proven track record delivering complex, high-quality production systems.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to tackle ambiguous or “black box” problems.
• Ability to work independently with high-level direction.

Cross-platform & systems thinking

• Experience integrating client applications with backend services and APIs.
• Understanding of distributed systems, APIs, and service architectures.
• Experience working with cloud platforms (preferably AWS).
• Experience designing systems for scalability, reliability, and observability.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern delivery practices.
• Experience working with legacy systems and modernisation efforts.

Engineering excellence

• Strong testing mindset (unit, integration, and end-to-end).
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and observability tooling.
• Performance optimisation and debugging experience.
• Secure coding practices and awareness of common security risks.
• Strong code review and maintainability focus.
• Experience contributing to standards and best practices within teams.

Leadership & collaboration

• Experience mentoring and supporting other engineers.
• Ability to influence technical direction and decision-making.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Comfortable working with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Capable of leading small to medium technical initiatives or projects.

Mindset & attributes

• T-shaped engineer: deep in one or more areas, broad across many.
• Adaptable and willing to work across technologies and platforms.
• Product- and customer-focused.
• Automation-first mindset.
• Active learner who takes ownership of personal development.
• Pragmatic decision-maker who balances speed, quality, and maintainability.
• Comfortable operating in evolving, fast-moving environments.

Nice to have (depending on discipline)

• Experience with design systems and shared component libraries.
• Experience with mobile release processes (App Store / Play Store).
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code and cloud architecture.
• Experience with building cloud native products, harnessing ‘out of the box’ cloud services/modules from AWS, MS Azure etc. ‘Consume it, don’t build it’ where appropriate.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools effectively and responsibly.

mkodo is a great place to work, along with a competitive renumeration package we offer excellent benefits comprising:

• Hybrid Working
• Generous Holiday Allowance (increasing with service)
• Gifted day over Christmas period
• Birthday off!
• Performance Bonus & Profit Share Scheme
• Quarterly team events
• Group income protection
• Life Insurance
• Charity/Volunteer Day
• Tech Loan Scheme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Contributory Pension
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Home working expense payment
• Friday beers provided in each office!
• Relevant individual training budget.
• Digital Nomad Policy
• Generous refer a friend scheme.

We encourage growth and progression because we value our colleagues and know that we best succeed when achieving and developing together.