Senior Software Developer - Scala

hackajob is collaborating with Sage to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role. We are looking for a Senior Backend Developer to join our HCM Localisation engineering team and help evolve a large-scale, cloud-based enterprise product. This role is focused on building and maintaining scalable backend services supporting complex product workflows, integrations, performance improvements, and ongoing platform modernisation. Please note: This is a hybrid role requiring 3 days per week in our Newcastle office In this role you'll: • Design, develop, and maintain robust backend services using Scala 2.13 and Play Framework in a Pekko-based environment. • Build clean, testable, and maintainable code using functional programming principles, immutability, pattern matching, and asynchronous programming with Futures. • Work with MySQL to design efficient data access patterns, optimize queries, tune indexes, and profile database performance. • Develop, deploy, and support services in AWS, working closely with DevOps and platform teams to ensure reliable delivery. • Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, Git-based pull request workflows, code reviews, and engineering best practices. • Collaborate with frontend engineers, QA, product owners, solution designers, and other backend developers to deliver high-quality product increments. • Support production stability by investigating issues, improving observability, and continuously reducing technical debt. Required Skills and Experience: • Extensive professional backend development experience, ideally in enterprise, SaaS, or cloud-based product environments. • Strong hands-on experience with Scala, including collections, Futures, immutability, pattern matching, error handling, and clean functional design. • Commercial experience with Play Framework or comparable JVM backend frameworks; Pekko or Akka experience is highly relevant. • Strong understanding of relational databases, especially MySQL, with practical knowledge of SQL optimization, indexes, query profiling, and transaction behaviour. • Experience using Redis or similar technologies for caching, session handling, or performance-sensitive workloads. • Deep understanding of OOP principles, functional programming, concurrency, the Scala type system, and advanced architectural patterns (e.g., Tagless Final, type classes, effect systems). • Ability to design and evolve complex distributed systems while promoting engineering best practices across the team • Hands-on experience with AWS services and cloud-native delivery practices. • Good understanding of CI/CD, Git, branching strategies, pull request flows, automated testing, and release practices. • Ability to work effectively in distributed Agile teams, communicate clearly, and take ownership of complex technical problems. Nice to Have: • Experience with Squeryl, Doobie, or similar Scala data access libraries. • Familiarity with Grafana or Kibana dashboards, alerting, logging, and production observability practices. • Experience with large distributed systems, horizontal scaling, resilient service design, or high-throughput Play / Pekko applications. • Previous experience in Payroll, HR, HCM, ERP, compliance-heavy, or localisation-focused product domains. • Russian, Ukrainian, or Polish language skills would be beneficial, but are not essential. Ways of Working: • Pragmatic, delivery-focused, and able to balance new feature development with maintenance, bug fixing, and technical improvement work. • Proactive in code reviews, design discussions, troubleshooting, and knowledge sharing across the engineering team. • Strong problem-solving mindset, attention to detail, and willingness to work with an established codebase while helping modernise it over time. Want to know more about our Product?: Benefits? We have plenty Video: • Generous bonuses and pension scheme: Up to 8% matched pension contribution plus 2% top-up by Sage. • 25 days of paid annual leave with the option to buy up to another 5 days. • 8 bank holiday days. • Paid 5 days yearly to volunteer through our Sage Foundation. • 50% income protection. • Holiday buy sell. • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage. • Work away scheme for up to 10 weeks a year. • Ongoing training and professional development. • Hybrid working. • Healthy Mind app membership • Access to various helpful memberships for finances, health and wellbeing. LI-MD141bf1e1f-b16b-4260-a40a-17c77a06fd15