Backend Engineering and Architecture Lead

We’re looking for an experienced and technically passionate Backend Chapter Lead to shape the future of backend engineering at E.ON UK. You’ll play a key role in setting our technical direction, developing engineering talent and building the platforms that power brilliant customer experiences.

Leading a team of Engineering Managers and Staff Engineers, you’ll bring together technical excellence, strategic thinking and people leadership to help more than 50 backend engineers thrive. From defining our long-term architecture to getting hands-on with code, troubleshooting complex issues and exploring new technologies, you’ll balance the bigger picture with the technical detail to make a real impact.

Here’s a taste of what you’ll be doing

• Lead, coach and develop our Engineering Managers and Staff Engineers, building a high-performing engineering community with a strong focus on career development, inclusion and collaboration.
• Set the technical vision and long-term roadmap for backend engineering, shaping the architecture of our services, APIs, data pipelines and cloud infrastructure.
• Stay hands-on with engineering, working alongside teams on complex technical challenges, production incidents, troubleshooting and proof of concepts.
• Drive engineering excellence by championing technical standards, code quality, DevOps practices and continuous improvement across our backend services.
• Partner with Product and Technology leaders to balance delivery priorities, technical debt, platform reliability and capacity, ensuring we build solutions that work for the long term.
• Influence at executive level, shaping technology strategy, managing engineering budgets and driving innovation through emerging technologies, including AI and machine learning.

Are we the perfect match?

• You have significant software engineering experience, including a strong track record of leading engineering leaders and scaling high-performing teams of 30 or more engineers.
• You have deep, hands-on expertise in backend engineering, distributed systems, microservices and cloud infrastructure, ideally with Python, FastAPI and AWS.
• You’re experienced in setting technical strategy, developing multi-year roadmaps and making architectural decisions that balance innovation, scalability and long-term platform health.
• You’re a confident and influential leader who can move seamlessly between executive-level discussions and detailed technical problem-solving with engineering teams.
• You understand modern software engineering practices, including DevOps, platform engineering and CI/CD, and have the commercial awareness to manage budgets and align technical investment with business priorities.

It would be great if you had

• Experience working with technologies such as Django, Flask, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes and Terraform.
• Experience with event-driven architecture, REST and GraphQL APIs, messaging services and cloud-native infrastructure.
• A background in observability, automated testing and incident management, using tools such as PyTest, CloudWatch, New Relic or Sentry.
• Experience introducing AI and machine learning capabilities into backend services, alongside a passion for exploring emerging technologies.
• A track record of leading organisational change, building diverse talent pipelines and creating an inclusive engineering culture where people feel empowered to learn and do their best work.

Here’s what else you need to know

• Role may close earlier due to high applications.
• Permanent
• Competitive salary
• Location - London - with travel between sites when required.
• Excellent parental leave allowance.
• Award-Winning Workplace - We’re proud to be named a Sunday Times Best Place to Work 2025 and the Best Place to Work for 16-34-year-olds
• Outstanding Benefits - Enjoy 26 days of annual leave plus bank holidays, a generous pension, life cover, bonus opportunities and access to 20 flexible benefits with tax/NI savings
• Flexible & Family-Friendly - Our industry-leading hybrid and family-friendly policies earned us double recognition at the Personnel Today Awards 2024. We’re open to discussing how flexibility can work for you
• Inclusive & Diverse - We’re the only energy company in the Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers. We’re also proud winners of Best Employer for Women and Human Company of the Year -recognising our inclusive, people-first culture
• Support at Every Stage of Life - We’re Fertility Friendly and Menopause Friendly accredited, with inclusive support for everyone
• Accessible & Supportive - Do you consider yourself as having a disability? As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee interviews for disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role and will make any adjustments needed during the process
• Invested in Your Growth - From inclusive talent networks to top-tier development programmes, we’ll support your growth every step of the way
• For all successful candidates. Due to the nature of this role your employment will be subject to a basic DBS (Disclosure Barring Service) check being carried out by ourselves via a 3rd party service provider