Lead Backend Architect - London

Lead Backend Architect - £150,000 - Financial ServicesOverviewI am currently looking for a Lead Backend Architect to join my client who are a global financial services organisation and social network for investors. You will lead the design and evolution of our client's backend systems, development processes, and infrastructure strategy. This is a key leadership role focused on delivering scalable, resilient, and high-performing solutions while fostering strong collaboration across engineering, DevOps, and monitoring teams.Key Responsibilities

• Define and oversee the end-to-end software development lifecycle (SDLC)
• Establish and refine engineering standards, including coding, reviewing, and testing practices
• Lead efforts to implement robust automated testing (unit, integration, E2E)
• Collaborate with DevOps to optimize CI/CD workflows and release pipelines

• Design high-load, fault-tolerant, and highly available systems
• Apply modern architectural patterns such as microservices and event-driven architecture
• Ensure scalability, maintainability, and performance of backend services
• Develop and maintain comprehensive architectural documentation
• Conduct architecture reviews, technical audits, and drive adoption of best practices

• Partner with infrastructure teams to ensure system reliability and operational efficiency
• Integrate monitoring and logging solutions (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK)
• Define strategies for disaster recovery, scaling, and infrastructure resilience
• Improve observability by enhancing visibility into performance and error metrics

Skills and Experience Required

• 10+ years of backend development experience, including 5+ years in an architectural or engineering leadership role
• Proven experience designing and scaling high-load, distributed systems
• Deep understanding of microservices, service orchestration, and API communication (REST, gRPC)
• Expertise with SQL and NoSQL databases, including performance tuning and optimization
• Experience with Golang development
• Strong background in automated testing methodologies and tools
• Familiarity with cloud platforms, Kubernetes, and DevOps collaboration
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a strategic mindset
• Experience maintaining architectural documentation and leading technical reviews

Package

• Competitive salary - up to £150,000
• Discretionary Bonus
• Flexible and hybrid working options (office based in London)
• Option to work abroad with excellent relocation package