Lead Backend Engineer

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. For 90 years we have shaped brighter futures through education, arts, culture, language, and creativity.

Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries.

We connect. We inspire.

The Role 

As Lead Backend Engineer, you will drive the development, maintenance and optimisation of robust, scalable and secure backend systems supporting British Council products and services globally. You will contribute to technical design and implementation, ensure system stability, performance and security, and support backend engineers in delivering high-quality code aligned with product goals and agile delivery plans. Working collaboratively with Engineering, Product, Design and Operations teams worldwide, you will enable seamless integration with client applications and support user-centred digital initiatives.

The Digital and Technology Directorate drives the British Council’s digital strategy and transformation, delivering customer-focused digital products, scalable platforms and technology solutions that enable growth, impact and efficiency. Within this Directorate, the Engineering team brings together Architecture, Software Engineering, Quality Assurance and Delivery expertise to develop and maintain global digital products and services, championing reusable capabilities, effective engineering practices, innovation and secure, accessible technology solutions.

Main responsibilities

You will provide technical leadership and mentoring to backend engineers, promoting best coding practices, quality standards, collaboration, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement. You will contribute to recruitment activities, identify opportunities for cost optimisation and efficiency, and work closely with product managers, stakeholders and business partners to plan and deliver backend engineering projects. Your responsibilities will include technical design, coding, code reviews, testing, documentation and the adoption of emerging technologies to ensure scalable, reliable and high-quality solutions are delivered in line with project milestones.

You will ensure backend systems meet security, risk, compliance and data privacy requirements by identifying vulnerabilities and maintaining robust monitoring and logging mechanisms. Working with customer success teams, data analysts and business analysts, you will incorporate customer feedback, analyse system performance and usage patterns, and identify opportunities for continuous optimisation. You will also develop analytics and reporting capabilities and prepare regular reports and presentations to communicate engineering performance, progress and insights to relevant stakeholders.

Role specific skills

• Strong Technical Expertise: Excellent understanding of Backend technologies, frameworks, and architectures.
• Leadership and Mentoring: mentor a team of engineers to inspire and motivate the team, provide technical guidance, and foster a collaborative and productive work environment to continuously improve capability.
• Problem Solving and Critical Thinking: analyse complex problems, identify patterns, and propose innovative solutions.
• Strategic Thinking: strategic mindset and the ability to align technical decisions with the organisation's goals and objectives.

Role specific knowledge and experience

Minimum/essential

• Demonstrable experience in Backend engineering, with a focus on designing and implementing scalable and high-performance systems.
• Strong proficiency in programming languages such as .Net, C#, PHP, NodeJS, Python, and experience with Backend frameworks (e.g., Symfony, Express, Django).
• Deep understanding of distributed system concepts, cloud architectures (e.g., AWS, Azure), and microservices architecture.
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, data modelling, and query optimization.
• Solid knowledge of RESTful APIs, message queues, caching mechanisms, and other Backend technologies.
• Strong knowledge of containerization and orchestration platforms (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) and related technologies.
• Experience with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Jenkins, Terraform).
• Experience and understanding in frontend technologies (e.g React, Angular)
• Skilled in end-to-end unit and integration testing (e.g., Cypress, Jest and Playwright)
• Good prototyping skills
• Experience in resource allocation and management, and component optimisation
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Skilled in agile development (Scrum/Kanban), software patterns, test and behaviour driven development and version control

Desirable

• Experience leading a technical development project
• Familiarity with event-driven architecture and stream processing frameworks (e.g., Kafka, Apache Flink).
• Understanding of security best practices, authentication, and authorisation protocols (e.g., OAuth, JWT).
• Knowledge of data analytics and visualization tools (e.g., Elasticsearch, Kibana, Tableau).

Language Requirements

• The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required.

Education

Minimum/essential

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering or a related field; or 3 years equivalent experience in related discipline.
• Continuous learning through online courses, workshops, and industry conferences to stay updated with emerging technologies and best practices in Backend development

Desirable: 

• Master’s degree in computer science or a relevant specialisation providing a deeper understanding of advanced topics and research in Backend engineering.

British Council | Pay Band 9 SMP 

Location:  Kraków, Warsaw, Poland

Department: Digital and Technology

Contract: Indefinite Contract 

Apply by: Monday, October 19th (23:59 local time)
Interview Window: TBD

Please note: Candidates must have the pre-existing legal right to work in Poland, where the role is based, at the time of application. Mobility / relocation / visa sponsoring support will not be provided.  British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service.  This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from all sections of the community as we believe that a diverse workforce gives added depth to our work. The British Council is a Disability Confident Employer. The Disability Confident scheme helps challenge attitudes, increase understanding of disability and ensure staff are drawn from the widest possible pool of talent. We guarantee an interview for disabled applicants who meet the minimum role requirements. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

Safeguarding Statement

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with. We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989. Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.

If you experience any difficulties with submitting your application, please email [email protected]