Software Engineer - Universal Search

Title: Software Engineer - Universal Search Location: Manchester

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 a Software Engineer to join the Universal Search team and help build technology that makes critical information easier to find, access and use. Universal Search is our federated search platform. When an officer or dispatcher runs a person, vehicle or property query, it sends that query to trusted external systems such as the UK Police National Computer (PNC), national and state criminal justice networks, and driver and vehicle licensing agencies. It then brings the results together in a consistent format and delivers them in real time to our Records Management System (RMS), Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) and mobile products.

You’ll work within one team, alongside experienced engineers, on small to medium-sized pieces of this platform: integrations, backend services and real-time features. This is a great opportunity for an engineer early in their career who enjoys backend development, wants to grow into an independent engineer, and wants to build software that makes a real difference to public safety professionals.

What You'll Do

• If you were on our team last week, you might have:
• Picked up a ticket to add a new field from an external data source, such as a driving licence or vehicle record. You mapped it into our standard result format so it displays correctly in CAD and RMS.
• Built or extended a Java and Spring Boot backend service for a third-party integration, writing code with readability, testability, edge cases and error handling in mind.
• Written unit and integration tests for your changes, and learned from teammates when each type of test is the right tool.
• Used AI-assisted development tools (we use Claude Code) to help you write, understand and debug code, while checking and owning the result.
• Taken a ticket all the way through our development process (design, code, review, test, deploy, verify in production) and made sure it was production-ready.
• Looked into a bug reported by a customer using logs and Datadog dashboards, traced it to its root cause with help from a teammate, and shipped a fix.
• Taken part in code reviews: asking questions, giving constructive feedback, and taking feedback on your own pull requests as a chance to grow.
• Shared progress with your team every day, raised blockers early, and delivered on your sprint commitments.
• Learned how our services fit together, from the API and external integrations to the real-time results pipeline and the React front end, and flagged when a change might break an interface other teams depend on.

What You'll Need

We’re looking for an engineer who is building their foundation in backend development and is excited to grow into an independent engineer with support from mentors and teammates.

Must Have:

• A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or 2+ years of relevant full-time software engineering experience.

• Experience developing applications in Java and a solid grasp of object-oriented programming and core computer science concepts (data structures, algorithms, complexity).

• Familiarity with RESTful APIs and how backend services talk to each other and to external systems.

• A foundational understanding of databases (e.g. SQL) and how applications store, retrieve and process data.

• Familiarity with version control (Git), automated testing and code reviews, and an interest in learning CI/CD workflows.

• A willingness to learn debugging and monitoring tools, and to dig into problems methodically.

• Experience using, or a strong interest in learning, AI-assisted development tools.

• Clear written and verbal communication, and comfort asking questions, sharing progress and seeking feedback.

Nice to Have:

• Exposure to Spring Boot, AWS (e.g. Lambda, S3, DynamoDB) or Redis.

• Exposure to real-time or event-driven technologies such as WebSockets or Kafka.

• Some front-end experience with React and TypeScript.

• Experience integrating with third-party APIs or working with data in different formats (JSON, XML).

• Familiarity with containers (Docker) or integration testing tools.

• An interest in security best practices, particularly around sensitive data and access control.

• An interest in public safety technology or other regulated environments.

People Who Thrive on Our Team Also Tend to Be:

• Mission-driven: You care about building technology that improves lives and strengthens communities.

• Curious and humble: You're eager to learn, ask thoughtful questions and welcome feedback that helps you grow.

• Team-oriented: You enjoy collaborating with others, sharing ideas and contributing to a supportive engineering environment.

• Growth-minded: You're motivated to develop your technical skills, take on new challenges and gradually build greater ownership of your work.

• Thoughtful problem-solvers: You approach challenges with curiosity, break down problems into manageable steps and know when to seek guidance.

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 Manchester office and follows a hybrid working 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.