Virgin Red
Senior Software Engineer
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Application Deadline: 13 October 2026
Department: Technology
Location: London
Compensation: £78,000 - £95,000 / year
Description
We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to take a hands-on role designing, building and shipping the back-end services behind our growing rewards platform. Alongside writing great code, you’ll help raise the bar for those around you – sharing what you know, mentoring others and playing an increasingly influential role in how the team works.
What you’ll be getting stuck into
- Design, build, test and ship high-quality back-end services, working predominantly with Java, Spring Boot and AWS.
- Take ownership of meaningful pieces of work from the first design conversations right through to production – not simply completing tickets, but helping shape the best solution.
- Work across scalable, cloud-based systems, tackling the things that matter behind the scenes including performance, resilience, security and data.
- Be a senior technical voice in the team, reviewing code, pairing with others and mentoring more junior engineers to help everyone do their best work.
- Help turn loosely defined problems into clear, practical plans, breaking bigger pieces of work into manageable steps and keeping delivery moving.
- Bring energy, ideas and a willingness to speak up. You’ll be an important role model within the team, with plenty of opportunity to grow your leadership influence.
- Explore spec-driven development and AI-assisted engineering as our ways of working evolve, using new tools thoughtfully without compromising strong engineering fundamentals or quality.
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What you’ll bring
- Strong back-end software engineering experience, particularly with Java and Spring, plus a solid understanding of what great software engineering looks like.
- Experience building and running scalable services in AWS, ideally including distributed systems, microservices, APIs and event-driven architecture.
- Confidence designing solutions as well as writing the code, with experience taking work from an initial problem through to something reliable in production.
- Commercial software engineering experience would be useful. Previous experience at Senior Engineer level is a bonus, but we’re much more interested in what you can do than the title you’ve had.
- The ability and willingness to support other engineers through mentoring, feedback, code reviews and sharing your knowledge.
- A positive, curious approach. You’ll bring some energy to the room, enjoy learning new things and be open to evolving how you work – including exploring tools such as AI-assisted development where they genuinely make engineering better.
What you’ll get in return
We know life doesn’t stop when work starts. So we’ve built our benefits to support you - at work and beyond.
- Life – support when it matters most, with healthcare from day one, family-friendly policies and help for life’s bigger moments
- Work – the foundations that set you up for the future, including a competitive pension, life assurance and options like our EV scheme
- Spirit – space to grow and enjoy the journey, with a personal learning budget, mentoring, volunteering time… and our famous “Screw it, let’s do it” pot
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It’s all designed to help you feel your best, do your best, and enjoy the ride - with a few extra Virgin touches along the way (because we don’t really do “standard”).
The essentials
- Salary: £78,000 - £95,000 + bonus — we’re big on transparency, so no smoke and mirrors here. We’ll always offer a salary that reflects your experience, with room to grow within the range.
- Where you’ll work: We come together in our London office once a month, with flexibility to work from your own space the rest of the time. Ideally, you’ll be based in or near London so you can make the most of our office and opportunities to connect in person.
Bring your whole self
We welcome people from all walks of life, with all kinds of experiences and ways of thinking. Different perspectives, however your mind works, help us see things differently and do things better.
If there’s anything we can do to support you through the hiring process, just let us know, we’ll always do our best to make it work for you.
We believe in using business as a force for good, creating positive change for our people, our communities and the world around us. That includes being a Fair Chance employer and championing strengths like dyslexic thinking - staying open, listening to individual circumstances and focusing on potential.
Where could this role take you? Your Virgin adventure starts here.
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