Software Engineer - Universal Search

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the country in which the role is being hired. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

About Mark43

Mark43 empowers communities and their governments with technology that improves safety and quality of life. We build modern, resilient software that first responders and public safety agencies depend on in their most critical moments.

We are looking for an experienced Software Engineer – Universal Search to help shape the future of 3 rd party search and data integration at Mark43. In this role, you’ll build and scale the systems behind our universal search platform that powers fast, accurate, and secure access to critical data across our RMS, CAD, and analytics products. You'll work on distributed systems, real-time data indexing, and modern search technologies to support life-saving decision making for our public safety users.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the country in which the role is being hired. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

What You’ll Do

If you were on our team last week, you might have:

Led end-to-end system design for a new universal search experience across RMS, CAD, and other core components, collaborating with Product and cross-functional engineering teams to ensure a scalable, secure, and user-friendly solution that spans domains.

Extended platform configurability and connectivity to tap new search data sources using AI-powered coding tools to accelerate development while maintaining high standards for code quality.

Reviewed pull requests for enhancements to our authorization layer and index mappings in configurations, providing detailed architectural and performance-focused feedback to improve clarity, maintainability, and system resilience.

Acted as release manager, coordinating deployment logistics, validating release readiness, and ensuring smooth, downtime-free updates to production through clear cross-team communication.

Owned the end-to-end delivery of a feature supporting permission-aware global search filtering, aligning closely with Product, Infrastructure, and Design from technical feasibility through post-release monitoring.

Mentored junior engineers, pair-programmed through complex debugging sessions, and coached teammates on prioritizing technical debt while delivering roadmap commitments.

Participated in the on-call rotation, triaged and resolved a spike in failed search queries, and led a structured Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to drive follow-up improvements in system observability and alerting.

What You’ll Need

We’re looking for a backend engineer with at least 3+ years of professional experience who can take ownership, lead initiatives, and operate with autonomy in a distributed systems environment.

Must-Haves:

Proficiency in Java with strong backend development experience.

Experience integrating and working with third-party systems to support search functionality across domains.

Familiarity with event-driven architectures using Amazon SNS, Amazon SQS, or Kinesis.

Strong experience with AWS services such as Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions, S3, ECS/EKS, DynamoDB, Aurora/RDS, IAM, and CloudWatch.

Prior experience using AI engines to increase development velocity and deliver results

Solid understanding of indexing strategies, document schema design, and query optimization.

Comfort working with CI/CD workflows and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools in a serverless-first, microservices-based architecture.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Nice to Have:

Prior experience working on multi-tenant platforms or large-scale search products.

Familiarity with public safety or regulated domains.

Knowledge of security best practices around data access and query auditing.

People Who Thrive on Our Team Also Tend to Be:

Mission-driven – You care deeply about building technology that improves lives and strengthens communities

Curious and humble – You ask questions before making assumptions and actively seek feedback

Team-oriented – You value cross-functional collaboration as a key to shipping great software

Growth-minded – You look for ways to improve every day, even if the path isn’t always clear

Calm under uncertainty – You’re comfortable navigating ambiguity and solving problems without a roadmap

What We Offer

28 days holiday plus UK bank holidays

Private medical, dental, and vision insurance through AXA Health and BUPA, fully paid for you and your dependents

18 weeks paid parental leave for primary caregivers plus a ramp-back programme

Income protection (75% of salary) and death in service cover (4x salary), fully paid

Pension through Nest with 3% employer contribution

Gym reimbursement for you and your partner

Equipment allowance to set up your home office

AI tooling including Claude Code Enterprise and ChatGPT Enterprise licences provided

Spring Health membership with therapy sessions and mental wellness tools, fully covered

Company performance-based bonus

Paid sabbatical of one month at your five-year anniversary

Biannual hackathons , learning budget, and a team that genuinely invests in your growth

What We Value

Humility. You know the best ideas win, no matter where they come from. You ask questions before making assumptions and you're as happy being wrong as being right, because either way, the team gets to a better answer.

Inclusivity. You respect expertise in all its forms and actively seek out perspectives different from your own. You make space for others and assume good intent.

Excellence. You care about quality in your code, your reviews, and how you communicate. You're not satisfied with "it works" when it could be better, and you encourage the same standard in those around you.

Diligence. You take ownership, mind the details, and understand that the software we build is used in moments that genuinely matter. You don't cut corners when people are depending on the outcome.

Location

This role is based at our Central Manchester office and follows a hybrid work model with at least three days a week in the office.

Applicants must be authorised to work in the UK. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

This role may require you to complete Non-Police Personnel Vetting (NPPV) security clearance up to level 3.

Mark43 is approved to hire in Canada, the UK, and 36 U.S. states, including Alabama, Arizona, California (excluding San Francisco), Colorado, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. Before applying to a remote role, please ensure that you are able to perform the position in one of the states listed above. State locations and specifics are subject to change as our hiring requirements shift.

Our Privacy Notice describes how Mark43 uses and protects the personal information of prospective employees during the recruitment process. It informs you about our handling of the personal information you provide to us when you apply for a position in our organization and in general when you express your interest in joining our team.

As a part of Mark43's security measures all employees must: Engage in appropriate use of the company's electronic information resources; Become knowledgeable about and follow relevant security policies and guidelines; Protect the resources under their control, such as passwords, computers, and data that they create, receive, or download; and Promptly report security-related incidents and violations, and resp