Principal Back-End Developer - Manchester City Centre

We're working with a well-established UK SaaS provider that is investing heavily in its engineering capability and looking to appoint a Principal Back-End Developer to set technical direction and lead the evolution of a core platform used at scale.

This is a senior, hands-on role where you'll combine deep technical expertise with leadership and mentorship, shaping back-end architecture while working closely with other senior engineers and stakeholders across the business.

You'll play a key role in defining standards, improving engineering practices, and ensuring the platform remains scalable, resilient, and aligned with wider business goals.

What you'll be doing:

• Owning and defining back-end architecture and technical strategy
• Building and evolving high-performance SaaS services used by thousands of users
• Acting as a technical leader and mentor, supporting the growth of other engineers
• Driving best practice across TDD, code quality, and system design
• Improving development processes, tooling, and observability

• Strong commercial experience with C# and .NET (6+ preferred)
• Expert knowledge of SQL Server and Test-Driven Development (NUnit)
• Proven experience building and maintaining RESTful and GraphQL APIs
• Strong understanding of SOLID principles, OOP, and modern back-end design
• Confidence diagnosing and resolving complex production issues
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence technical direction

Desirable experience:

• Entity Framework or other ORMs
• Azure and modern DevOps / CI/CD practices
• Experience with observability (logging, metrics, monitoring)
• Strong awareness of security best practice, * C# / .NET 6+ / SQL Server / TDD

• Salary up to £70,000
• Manchester-based role with an office-first culture and flexible working hours
• Clear progression at Principal level with real influence over technical direction
• Collaborative, engineering-led environment with a strong focus on quality
• Comprehensive benefits package including bonus schemes, training budget, and wellbeing support