Senior Software Engineer (Backend)

Navan
London, United Kingdom
On-site

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior backend engineers with AI and distributed systems expertise who can drive global product infrastructure and collaborate across teams in London, UK.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 4-6 years of experience in high-growth environments and a track record in building scalable backend systems
    — “4-6 years of experience building and scaling complex systems in fast-paced, high-growth, or large-scale environments
  • Individuals with a strong background in Java and Spring Boot, and a focus on JVM performance optimization
    — “Proficiency in Java and Spring Boot, with a solid understanding of JVM performance and optimization

Things to consider

  • Candidates must be prepared to take full ownership of features, including post-release support
    — “Take end-to-end ownership of features—from design and development to deployment and operational support
  • The role involves working with global teams, which may require coordination across time zones
    — “Work effectively as part of a global, cross-functional team

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with AI integration in backend systems and measurable improvements in scalability or performance
    — “Proven experience leveraging AI models and AI-driven development to build intelligent, automated features
  • Emphasize ownership of features post-release, including monitoring and troubleshooting efforts
    — “Delivering production-quality, maintainable code, and supporting features post-release through monitoring and troubleshooting
  • Showcase work with distributed systems, microservices, and cloud platforms like AWS
    — “Strong experience with distributed systems, microservices, and API design, including practical expertise with AWS or other cloud platforms
  • Demonstrate a history of working on large-scale products, especially those with global reach
    — “Build at Scale: Design and develop robust, high-performance features and core services that support the company's flagship product and serve a global customer base.
  • Include examples of cross-functional collaboration in global teams on complex projects
    — “Collaborate Across Teams: Work effectively as part of a global, cross-functional team
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Designed and developed robust, high-performance features and core services
  • Improved reliability, performance, and user experience
  • Delivered production-quality, maintainable code
Typical background
4-6 years of experience building and scaling complex systemsJava & Spring Boot MasteryExperience with distributed systems and microservices

Skills & requirements

Required

JavaSpring BootAI IntegrationDistributed SystemsMicroservicesAPI DesignAWS

Preferred

FintechPayments Processing

Stack & domain

JavaSpring BootJVM PerformanceAIDistributed SystemsMicroservicesAPI DesignAWSFintechPayments ProcessingExpensesERPTaxHigh-stakes DataCollaborationOwnership MentalityCross-functional CollaborationTechnical ExcellenceContinuous ImprovementProblem SolvingEntrepreneurshipFinancePayments

About the role

Original posting from Navan

Navan has transformed the corporate travel, payment, and expense landscape by consistently prioritizing user needs. We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer (Backend) for our AI-first engineering team to drive the architecture of a next-generation corporate expense management platform. In this role, you will scale backend systems powering global commerce, payments, issuing platforms, and payment/money ledgers, while building infrastructure for automated policy management, granular admin controls, and seamless accounting system integrations.

What You'll Do

Build at Scale: Design and develop robust, high-performance features and core services that support the company's flagship product and serve a global customer base.

Solve Complex Problems: Apply deep technical expertise and creativity to address large-scale engineering challenges, driving improvements in reliability, performance, and user experience.

Deliver Customer-Facing Solutions: Take end-to-end ownership of features—from design and development to deployment and operational support—ensuring exceptional quality and value for users.

Collaborate Across Teams: Work effectively as part of a global, cross-functional team, partnering with fellow engineers, product managers, designers, and business leaders to deliver impactful solutions and elevate team performance.

Contribute to Engineering Culture: Champion best practices in code quality, scalability, documentation, monitoring, and testing, fostering a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Learn and Grow: Stay engaged with new technologies and industry trends, bringing a growth mindset and a passion for delivering elegant solutions to complex problems.

What We're Looking For

4-6 years of experience building and scaling complex systems in fast-paced, high-growth, or large-scale environments (open to exceptional candidates with less experience).

Java & Spring Mastery: Proficiency in Java and Spring Boot, with a solid understanding of JVM performance and optimization.

AI Integration: Proven experience leveraging AI models and AI-driven development to build intelligent, automated features and enhance engineering productivity.

Systems Architecture: Strong experience with distributed systems, microservices, and API design, including practical expertise with AWS or other cloud platforms.

Product Experience: Hands-on experience developing and maintaining consumer-facing or core business products at scale.

Ownership Mentality: A record of delivering production-quality, maintainable code, and supporting features post-release through monitoring and troubleshooting.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborative team player able to work effectively with global, cross-functional partners.

Technical Excellence: Commitment to engineering best practices in testing, documentation, scalability, and code quality, coupled with a passion for tackling technically demanding and customer-impacting challenges.

Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Bonus Qualifications

Fintech or payments processing experience is a plus.

Comfort with financial or workflow-heavy domains: expenses, payments, ERP, tax, or similarly high-stakes data.

Navan uses AI-assisted Automated Employment Decision Tool (Metaview) to assist with evaluating resumes against job qualifications for this role. All final decisions are made by human recruiters and hiring managers. 

Human oversight: Metaview does not automatically reject candidates or make final hiring decisions. Our recruiters and hiring managers review all outputs and make the final hiring decision regarding every application. 

Your rights: If you prefer to have your application reviewed without AI assistance, you may request a human evaluation by entering your email here. Your decision to do so will not affect how your candidacy is evaluated. 

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Source: Navan careers

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