Lead Backend Engineer (payments & Core Banking)

for Payments & Core Banking Design, evolve, and operate mission-critical systems handling real money Own system architecture, data flows, and boundaries for your domain

System Design & Architecture

Architect scalable, distributed backend systems using

TypeScript and Go

Design systems for payments, transfers, balances, ledgers, and reconciliation Make informed trade-offs around consistency, availability, and latency Design for failure: idempotency, retries, reconciliation, and recovery

Team Leadership & Delivery Ownership

Lead and manage a squad of

up to 5 backend engineers

Own your team's

tickets, delivery, and code quality

Run

daily stand-ups

and drive execution within the squad While priorities are shaped collaboratively with the Tech Lead, CTO, and Product Owner, you are responsible for

day-to-day task management and delivery

Maintain high engineering standards through hands-on reviews, guidance, and mentoring

Execution & Delivery

Lead backend delivery from design to production Break down complex initiatives into clear technical plans and milestones Support engineers with fast decisions, architectural guidance, and unblockers Ensure work ships efficiently without compromising quality or correctness

Reliability, Security & Compliance

Ensure systems are resilient, observable, and auditable Build safeguards around race conditions, edge cases, and failure modes Partner closely with compliance, risk, and operations teams Uphold high standards for data integrity, traceability, and financial correctness

Collaboration & Influence

Collaborate closely with Product Owners, Frontend, Mobile, Data, and AI teams Represent your domain in technical discussions with leadership Contribute to shared backend standards, tooling, and long-term architecture, Hybrid work -- join us in our London office at least 2 days a week Global mindset -- our team is part French, British, Italian, Asian, Polish, and Ukrainian. You get the idea. Career growth without limits -- deepen your craft, own critical systems, and grow your impact Modern, opinionated technical stack with room to influence decisions EUR500/month co-working support if you prefer your own setup Stock options -- we can't promise a fortune, but we're giving it our all 28+ vacation days per year, plus your birthday off Global health insurance and unlimited paid sick leave Work with top talent from anywhere, not just within a 1-hour commute * Support for reinvention -- people evolve, and careers should too

5-7+ years of backend engineering experience, including team leadership Strong expertise in, in production environments Proven experience architecting

scalable, distributed systems

Experience building payments, banking, or other high-stakes financial systems Deep understanding of concurrency, consistency models, and failure handling Strong code review, mentoring, and technical decision-making skills Clear communicator who can align engineers, product, and stakeholders, or similar workflow orchestration engines Experience with event-driven architectures or workflow-based systems Familiarity with ledger-based or double-entry accounting systems Experience integrating with banks, PSPs, or payment rails, you treat systems and teams as if they were your own company Obsession with correctness, reliability, and long-term maintainability Pragmatic architect with strong opinions, loosely held Calm under pressure when systems misbehave Low ego, high standards, and strong collaboration instincts Startup DNA -- bias to action, accountability, no bureaucracy