Senior Backend Engineer - Node - AI Native

Senior Backend Engineer - Node.js | TypeScript |AI Native Development | FinTech Salary: £70,000 - £85,000 (maybe some flexibility) Location: Manchester (Hybrid/flexible Working) Senior Backend Engineer - Node.js | TypeScript | FinTech Salary: £70,000 - £85,000 DOE Location: Manchester (Hybrid Working) Industry: FinTech / Financial Services The Opportunity I'm partnering with an exciting, early-stage FinTech business, backed by an established financial services group, looking for a talented Senior Backend Engineer to help build a brand-new digital banking platform. This is a genuine greenfield opportunity to join as one of the first engineers, with significant influence over the architecture, technology decisions and future direction of the product. Reporting directly to the CTO, you'll help design and develop the core backend infrastructure supporting modern digital financial services. The business operates in an AI-native engineering environment, using AI coding tools to accelerate development while maintaining high standards of quality, testing and security. The Role You'll play a key role in building a secure, scalable backend platform, working closely with product, design and engineering teams. Key responsibilities:

• Design, develop and deliver backend services, APIs, databases and event-driven systems.
• Build scalable applications using Node.js and modern backend technologies.
• Design and integrate REST/GraphQL APIs with banking, payments and third-party services.
• Use AI coding tools to accelerate development while maintaining strong engineering standards.
• Develop AI-powered features, including assistants, automation and document processing.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and the technical direction of the platform.
• Take ownership of features from design through to deployment and ongoing support.
• Write automated tests, review code and champion secure development practices.
• Collaborate with product, design, platform and payments engineering teams. What We're Looking For Essential experience:
• Strong backend development experience with Node.js.
• Experience designing, building and integrating REST/GraphQL APIs.
• Strong database knowledge, including PostgreSQL, MySQL or SQL Server.
• Experience integrating third-party systems and services.
• Practical experience using AI coding tools within the software development lifecycle.
• Solid understanding of automated testing, CI/CD, version control and secure coding.
• Comfortable taking ownership and contributing to architectural decisions within a small team. Desirable experience:
• FinTech, banking, payments or other regulated industries.
• Experience delivering AI/LLM-powered features into production.
• Cloud-native development using AWS, Azure or GCP.
• Containers and infrastructure-as-code.
• Experience mentoring engineers or establishing engineering standards. What's On Offer?
• £70,000 - £85,000 salary, depending on experience.
• 30 days' annual leave plus Bank Holidays.
• Hybrid working from Manchester.
• Company pension scheme.
• Direct collaboration with the CTO.
• Significant influence over the architecture and technical direction.
• Opportunity to work in a modern, AI-native engineering environment.
• Structured career development and ongoing learning opportunities.
• The autonomy of a startup with the backing of an established financial services group. Why Apply? This isn't a typical backend engineering role focused on maintaining legacy systems. You'll be joining at the beginning of an ambitious engineering journey, helping to build a modern financial technology platform from the ground up. You'll have the opportunity to influence technical decisions, shape engineering standards and work with modern technologies in a collaborative, high-impact environment. Interested? Apply now or get in touch for a confidential conversation. Desired Skills and Experience Node.js TypeScript JavaScript Back-End Web Development REST APIs GraphQL PostgreSQL Microservices Amazon Web Services (AWS) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Robert Walters Operations Limited is an employment business and employment agency and welcomes applications from all candidates