hero

Find jobs at MIT startups!

Please email orbit-jobs@mit.edu to connect with the company's MIT founder. To post a job, please email: orbit-jobs-add@mit.edu.
MIT
companies
Jobs

Lead Full Stack Engineer

Smarking

Smarking

Software Engineering
London, UK
Posted on Feb 28, 2026

About JustPark

JustPark is the premier partner offering both B2B solutions for destinations and B2C services for drivers, giving us the best of both worlds. We simplify the entire parking experience. From venues and councils to private driveways, our platform makes it simple for drivers to find, book, and pay for parking, while empowering our operating partners to deliver exceptional parking experiences.

We've always believed parking should be easier, from end to end. That's why we, two trailblazing companies - ParkHub and JustPark - have come together to make that vision a reality.

ParkHub revolutionized event parking in the US, optimizing venue operations for a smoother, stress-free experience. JustPark transformed parking in the UK, turning the hunt for a spot into a simple, seamless task.

Now, as one unified company, we're combining expertise to offer a full-service, frictionless parking solution for both businesses and consumers.

About the Role

The Lead Full Stack Engineer drives technical excellence across JustPark's frontend and backend systems. This role combines architectural oversight, hands-on development, and technical leadership to deliver high-quality solutions that serve millions of users globally.

This role is best suited for engineers who are comfortable working across the full stack, with deeper expertise in some areas and a willingness to grow in others. Whether you're an established senior engineer ready to step into a leadership role, or an early-stage lead looking to grow your impact, we're interested in talking to you. You should be someone who thrives when working across boundaries, enjoys the variety of context-switching between user-facing features and backend services, and is eager to develop as a technical leader.

What You'll Be Working On

To give you more of an idea of the kind of projects you'll be working on, here are initiatives similar to what our engineering teams deliver:

  • Internationalisation and white-labelling of products across frontend and backend systems to support customers in multiple countries
  • Architecting and delivering new customer service tools, internal platforms, and features across the full stack
  • Identifying and delivering performance improvements across frontend and backend systems to ensure a fast, reliable experience for millions of users
  • Leading the migration and modernisation of legacy systems, coordinating frontend and backend changes cohesively
  • Building and evolving APIs that power our customer-facing applications and third-party integrations
  • Establishing comprehensive testing strategies across the stack and improving code coverage
  • Contributing to key architectural decisions that shape the future of our platform at scale

Responsibilities

  • Lead and mentor engineers across multiple projects, fostering growth in both frontend and backend capabilities
  • Drive technical excellence and best practices across the full stack
  • Architect and oversee the implementation of features spanning React applications and PHP/Go backend services
  • Balance maintenance of existing systems with innovation in new features and platforms
  • Collaborate with product, design teams, and other engineering squads to deliver exceptional user experiences
  • Establish and maintain technical standards for full-stack development
  • Drive continuous improvement in application performance, stability, and system reliability
  • Oversee deployment processes and coordinate releases with stakeholders
  • Guide the technical roadmap for applications and services
  • Take charge of technical delivery while supporting more junior team members

Required Knowledge, Skills and Experience

  • 5+ years of experience in software development with strong proficiency across frontend and backend
  • Experience mentoring or technically leading engineers, with a desire to grow into a broader team leadership role
  • Strong technical background in modern frontend frameworks (e.g. React, Vue, or similar), JavaScript/TypeScript, and the broader frontend ecosystem
  • Commercial experience with PHP & Laravel (or similar frameworks like Symfony), along with proven experience in Go
  • Experience with relational databases, in-memory data stores, and query optimisation
  • Strong understanding of both frontend architecture patterns and backend system design
  • Experience with server-side rendering (SSR) and API design
  • Familiarity with observability, telemetry, and high-volume system monitoring
  • Strong testing practices across the stack (Cypress, Jest, React Testing Library, PHPUnit)
  • Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and containerisation
  • Understanding of web performance optimisation and core web vitals
  • A performance-focused mindset, particularly with reservation systems or transactional platforms
  • Experience breaking down projects into small, incremental, shippable releases
  • Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail

Bonus Experience

  • Experience with monorepo management and tooling (Yarn workspaces, Turborepo)
  • Knowledge of payment systems integration
  • Experience scaling applications for international markets
  • Previous experience in the parking or mobility sector
  • Experience with GraphQL and modern API integration patterns
  • Knowledge of micro-frontend architectures
  • Familiarity with time-series databases
  • Experience working with distributed teams across different time zones
  • Prior experience working in a startup or scaleup environment

What to Expect

In your first week:

Orientation and onboarding, setting up equipment and tools, meeting the team and understanding workflows. You'll review technical documentation, get familiar with our architecture across frontend and backend systems, and ship your first pull request to Production.

In your first month:

Contributing across the stack to get familiar with the codebase and workflow. Attending team meetings, sprint planning, and stand-ups. Learning about key projects, stakeholders, and technical practices. Starting to participate in code reviews and architectural discussions.

By the end of your 3rd month:

Delivering significant features spanning frontend and backend. Gaining a deep understanding of our system architecture. Actively contributing to planning, retrospectives, and technical strategy. Building strong working relationships and beginning to shape engineering practices across the team.

Growth Opportunities

  • Opportunity to shape the full-stack strategy for a rapidly growing international company
  • Increasing involvement in strategic technical decision-making
  • Development of broader technology leadership skills
  • Experience mentoring engineers across the stack
  • Opportunity to influence engineering practices across the organisation
  • Potential progression into Principal Engineer or broader engineering leadership roles

Recharge your batteries

  • Generous holiday policy: 25 days + bank holidays + managers can grant up to 5 extra days for high performance (total of 38 days a year)
  • Free lunch on all office days via Feedr with daily meal choice
  • Free snacks & drinks on all office days

Investment in you and your wellbeing

  • Private Medical Insurance with Vitality
  • Life assurance through YuLife
  • £25 credit for eye tests per year
  • Free O2 concert tickets through our partnership with the O2

Simplifying journeys so you can breathe easier

  • £50 parking credit per month via JustPark
  • Cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme
  • EV salary sacrifice car scheme via Octopus Energy

We look out for your family

  • Enhanced parental leave with 6-months enhanced maternity leave and 4 weeks fully-paid paternity leave
  • Help finding great childcare with funded hours via Koru Kids

Look after the pennies

  • Competitive pension offering with standard and salary sacrifice options

Success is best when it's shared

  • Quarterly away days with the whole UK team
  • Quarterly team social budget
  • Social activities and celebrations on our gorgeous rooftop in King's Cross

Our Interview Process

  1. First stage - 30-minute virtual video interview via Google Meet with the People Team to tell you more about JustPark and the role and learn more about your experience
  2. Second stage - 45-minute virtual video interview via Google Meet with the Hiring Manager
  3. Third stage - A take-home tech task covering both frontend and backend elements. We ensure the task is relevant and efficient—it would never take longer than 3-4 hours to complete
  4. Final stage - A 1.5-hour final interview to meet the team and manager, complete a code review exercise, and cover final interview questions around the role