Senior Software Engineer

About Sotheby's

Founded in 1744, Sotheby's is a renowned global auction house specializing in exceptional art and luxury items, including Contemporary Art, Modern and Impressionist Art, Old Masters, Jewelry, Watches, Wine and Spirits, collectibles like cars, and real estate through various divisions. Their expertise is supported by a sophisticated technology platform and an extensive international network across 40 countries. Sotheby's Financial Services offers capital solutions to collectors, having facilitated over $12 billion in loans since its inception. The company’s global headquarters is located in the iconic Breuer building in New York City.

The Role

As Senior Software Engineer at Sotheby's, you will contribute to a dynamic engineering environment underpinning the company's renowned auction platform. Your work will impact a wide range of projects from inventory acquisition and valuation systems to client and specialist-facing platforms, identity and compliance infrastructure, and the technology enabling live auctions involving transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The role offers real ownership of engineering systems with an emphasis on quality craftsmanship and curiosity about the art auction domain. The teams operate primarily remotely within the UK, with regular collaborative meetings supporting both synchronous and asynchronous workflows.

Ideal Experience & Competencies

• Minimum five years of experience delivering production-grade systems with accountability for services or products used by others.
• Strong problem-solving skills oriented toward pragmatic business solutions rather than purely technical challenges.
• Clear and effective communication skills, capable of articulating technical decisions and collaborating across teams.
• Adaptability to diverse day-to-day engineering tasks and responsibilities.
• Commitment to code quality using modern tools, including the use of AI to enhance productivity while maintaining deep system understanding.
• Proficiency in at least one of the following programming languages: Go, React/TypeScript, or Scala, accompanied by comfort with distributed systems.
• Experience designing, deploying, and managing distributed systems and microservices architectures.
• Strong knowledge of relational databases, preferably PostgreSQL.
• Familiarity with cloud environments, particularly AWS, and containerization technologies.
• Residence within the United Kingdom (London-based or fully remote in the UK).

Desirable additional skills include experience with event-driven systems and streaming platforms, API design across GraphQL, gRPC, or REST, authentication and compliance systems, and background in e-commerce, marketplaces, or auction domains.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary package including a discretionary bonus.
• Private medical insurance and dental coverage alongside a health cash plan.
• Workplace nursery benefits.
• Generous paid holidays, Christmas shutdown, summer Fridays, and volunteer/wellbeing leave days.
• Provision of high-quality hardware for work.
• Access to cycle to work schemes and eye care vouchers.
• Regular social activities, meetups, and access to our London office space for events such as the notable summer and Christmas parties.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Sotheby's is dedicated to providing an inclusive work environment and is an equal opportunity employer. We prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.