Backend Engineering Manager

Atom bank; Newcastle upon Tyne; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible hybrid working in Newcastle

4-day work week

Generous pension scheme (13% Atom end)

22.5 days annual leave + public HOL

Private Medical Insurance

Life Insurance & Critical illness

EV Scheme

£200 All about me fund

Job summary

Atom Bank is seeking an Backend Engineering Manager to lead a growing team in Newcastle, fostering psychological safety, high delivery cadence, and personal growth, while shaping scalable, secure backend architectures.

You will collaborate with Product, Architecture, UX/CX and Frontend, champion modern practices, and accelerate with AI-powered tooling and automated testing to boost velocity and reliability.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading software engineers in Agile/DevOps.
• Strong backend architecture and microservices expertise.
• Experience delivering high-throughput, secure APIs.
• Excellent communication bridging tech and product goals.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and mentor a growing backend engineering team.
• Own backend guilds and capability roadmaps.
• Advance engineering excellence and reduce technical debt.
• Drive AI-powered tooling and automated testing to boost velocity.
• Collaborate with Product, Architecture, UX/CX, and Frontend teams.
• Ensure security, reliability, and regulatory compliance.

Skills

People-first leadership

Commercial acumen

Agile/DevOps

Backend architecture

Microservices

High-throughput API design

Tools

Go

Java

Kafka

GitLab CI/CD

Job description

We're Atom...

The bank that's on a mission to make finance faster, simpler and way more human.

We’ve ditched the stuffy banking model to build something that actually works for our customers, whenever and wherever they need us.To make this happen, we’re looking for like-minded people who can help us reach our goals and think differently.

If you’re ready to build the future of banking, we’d love to meet you.

We really value in-person collaboration, so this role requires 2 days per week in our Newcastle office.

What Will Your Typical Day Look like?

Technology is at the heart of the business, and we have a world-leading Technology stack that enables us to offer the most efficient, user-friendly app-based bank. The Technology team has end to end responsibility for all aspects of our Technology, from architecting the future, engineering solutions, to deploying and managing our technology services. Atom Technology is organised into long-lived value stream aligned teams, delivering technology change safely and at pace to support our business growth.

The Backend Engineering Manager is responsible for people management and building a high performing team whilst supporting team members to develop and providing them with the guidance and skills to succeed. The role holder also provides technical expertise that helps diagnose and solve complex technical issues, evangelising modern engineering practices.

What Will You be Doing:

• Empower & Develop Engineers: Lead, coach, and mentor a growing backend engineering team, fostering a culture anchored in psychological safety, high delivery cadence, and continuous personal growth.

• Lead Backend Guilds: Take direct ownership of our backend engineering guilds, establishing capability roadmaps to build scalable, resilient, and secure architectures.

• Drive Engineering Excellence: Champion modern engineering practices, robust code quality, and reusable patterns to keep technical debt low and system reliability high.

• Accelerate with AI & Automation: Drive the rollout and evolution of AI-powered developer tooling, intelligent code assistants (including Claude Code), and automated testing frameworks to boost team velocity and quality.

• Partner Cross-Functionally: Collaborate side-by-side with Product, Architecture, UX/CX, and Frontend teams to streamline our SDLC and ship high-impact features smoothly.

• Maintain Safety & Resilience: Ensure all services meet rigorous security standards, operational SLAs, and regulatory requirements (including PRA and FCA Conduct Rules).

What We Need From You:

• People-First Leadership: Proven commercial experience leading, motivating, and developing software engineers in an Agile/DevOps setting.
• Technical Depth: A solid background in backend architecture, microservices design patterns, and high-throughput, secure API ecosystems.
• Full-Stack Awareness: A holistic understanding of end-to-end software delivery cycles within modern cloud environments.
• Communication & Collaboration: Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to bridge complex technical discussions and product goals.

Nice To Have:

• Hands-on familiarity with Go, Java, Kafka, and GitLab CI/CD.
• Hands-on experience with modern AI developer tooling, such as Claude Code.
• Cloud-native architecture experience using Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Experience working in regulated industries or financial services governed by FCA/PRA frameworks.

What Will You Get From Us:

• Flexible hybrid working in Newcastle
• 4-day work week
• Incredibly generous company pension scheme (maximum of 13% of Atom input – candidate can put in more)
• 22.5 days annual leave plus public holiday
• Private Medical Insurance, Health Cash Plan, Life Insurance & Critical illness cover
• £200 "All about me" fund
• EV Scheme