Lead platform Engineer - Back-end Platforms

My client, an innovative technology company focused on building intelligent enterprise platforms, is hiring a Lead Platform Engineer to join a growing backend engineering team based in Belfast. This is an exciting opportunity to lead the development of scalable cloud-native systems and AI-powered services used across multiple products and platforms., You will join a collaborative engineering environment focused on delivering modern backend platforms, APIs, and distributed services that power AI-enabled products and intelligent interfaces. Working closely with engineering, product, and design teams, you will help shape technical direction while mentoring developers and driving engineering excellence.

As a Lead Platform Engineer, you will lead the design and development of scalable backend services and APIs using modern cloud-native technologies. You will contribute to architecture decisions, technical planning, code quality initiatives, and delivery processes while helping evolve platform reliability, observability, and deployment practices. The role combines hands-on engineering with team leadership responsibilities across a high-performing backend function.

• Strong experience building backend services and APIs using Node.js and JavaScript/TypeScript
• Experience designing scalable microservices and distributed systems
• Hands-on cloud experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP (GCP preferred)
• Experience with containerisation and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes
• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices
• Experience working with relational and/or NoSQL databases including PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, or Firestore
• Experience leading engineering teams, mentoring developers, and driving technical standards
• Strong knowledge of Agile software delivery methodologies
• Experience contributing to architecture reviews, code reviews, and engineering governance
• Familiarity with observability tooling including logging, metrics, and monitoring systems
• Exposure to event-driven systems or messaging technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or Pub/Sub is desirable
• Experience with AI-powered services, automation platforms, or intelligent systems would be advantageous
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tooling such as Terraform or Pulumi would be beneficial

• Competitive salary and benefits package
• Hybrid working (typically 2 days in the Belfast office)
• Flexible working environment
• Strong work-life balance including additional monthly and seasonal time off
• Share options within a fast-growing technology business
• Clear progression opportunities within a scaling engineering team

VANRATH acts as an agency and employment business for permanent recruitment and the supply of temporary workers. Successful applicants may be required to complete satisfactory pre-employment checks in line with client requirements and company policies.