Staff Software Engineer - Store Operations

Join M&S as a Staff Software Engineer within our Store Operations C&H team and help shape the future of retail technology. As part of our Software Engineering community, you'll join a trusted and iconic brand undergoing an exciting digital transformation. You'll play a key role in building and evolving colleague-facing applications that support stock keeping and stock movement operations across stores and distribution centres, helping thousands of colleagues deliver a great experience for millions of customers. We're looking for a technical leader with deep software engineering expertise, a passion for mentoring others, and experience delivering scalable, cloud-native solutions using modern engineering practices. You'll influence architecture, drive engineering excellence and help develop the next generation of engineering talent.

Due to high interest, this role may close earlier than advertised. We recommend applying as soon as possible.

What you'll do

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Lead the architecture, design, development and delivery of scalable software solutions, distributed systems and modernisation initiatives that support critical store operations across M&S.
• Provide technical leadership on complex, high-impact projects, tackling challenging technical problems while driving engineering excellence through code reviews, deployment optimisation and best practice adoption.
• Collaborate with stakeholders across product, delivery, architecture, infrastructure and senior leadership to deliver solutions aligned to business objectives, technology strategy and operational requirements.
• Drive operational stability through a production-first mindset, ensuring high availability, observability, service reliability and continuous improvement across platforms and services.
• Mentor and coach engineers at all levels, supporting recruitment, onboarding, capability development and fostering a high-performing engineering culture focused on innovation and continuous learning.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include:

• Strong hands-on experience developing enterprise applications using Java 21+, Spring Boot, Micronaut, REST APIs, microservices architecture, Kafka, MongoDB and relational databases including PostgreSQL, SQL Server and Azure SQL.
• Expertise in modern software engineering practices including TDD, BDD, Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Git, GitHub, GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines and Sonar, with a strong DevOps mindset of "you build it, you run it, you support it".
• Proven experience designing, deploying and supporting highly scalable cloud-native applications using Azure, Azure DevOps, Kubernetes, Docker, Redis and Azure Storage, with a strong understanding of distributed systems and cloud engineering.
• Strong understanding of operational excellence, observability, resilience and production support, with experience using Dynatrace and New Relic, alongside security, performance testing and optimisation best practices.
• Excellent leadership, coaching and stakeholder management skills, with experience mentoring engineers and exposure to technologies such as Kotlin, React and AI coding assistants/AI agents, whilst advocating engineering best practice and continuous improvement.

Our Tech Stack

• Java 21+
• Spring Boot
• Micronaut
• REST APIs
• Microservices
• Kafka
• MongoDB
• PostgreSQL
• SQL Server
• Azure SQL
• Git & GitHub
• GitHub Actions
• Azure DevOps & Azure Pipelines
• Azure
• Kubernetes
• Azure Storage
• React

What's in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We're inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:

• 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you've completed your probation
• Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more
• Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours
• Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future
• Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one
• Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal
• Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave
• 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services
• One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you

Everyone's welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We're disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We're transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.

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