Engineering Manager - AI Payments App

AI Chopping Block; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

KIRA is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead a high-performing team building scalable products used by millions across the region. You will guide architecture, ship high-quality software, and ensure delivery aligns with customer outcomes.

You will work closely with product, design, and AI teams to translate ambiguous problems into clear technical plans, coach engineers, and drive speed with reliability in a hybrid London-based role.

Qualifications

• Experience building and shipping production systems.
• Proven ability to lead software engineers and own delivery.
• Deep technical knowledge across backend/frontend/APIs/databases.
• Ability to design architecture with speed and maintainability.
• Proven track record from idea to production.
• Comfort reviewing designs and debugging production issues.
• Strong people leadership and coaching.
• Connect engineering decisions to customer outcomes.
• Work well with ambiguity and set priorities.
• Ownership mindset for delivery and post-release stability.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of engineers across frontend, backend and full stack.
• Own engineering delivery for major product areas with reliability and quality.
• Collaborate with product, design, mobile, backend and AI teams to translate product problems into technical plans.
• Set engineering standards around code quality, system design, testing, observability, security and production reliability.
• Stay close to the technical work through architecture reviews and code reviews.
• Develop engineers through regular feedback and coaching to raise the team's execution bar.

Skills

Leadership

System design

Frontend

Backend

APIs

Distributed systems

Cloud infrastructure

Performance debugging

Product focus

Ambiguity tolerance

Job description

About KIRA

Our mission is to make money smart, reliable and within reach for everyone.

In 2019, we built the first mobile-first, insurance platform, enabling insurance to be accessible online by millions in the region. Today, it's the leading insurance platform in Southeast Asia.

Today, we are expanding ways to help people in Asia and it includes spending, saving, investing, exchanging, travelling, and more. Our objective is to build tools that will help people get more from their money and at ease and self reliance, become an expert. We believe AI will help us achieve this in our generation.

We are looking for the most talented and driven people we can find. We are looking for people who work for their passion, not counting hours. Who loves building great next-generation products, not status quo. Who cares about redefining how everyone around us can get the best financial applications, not for an exclusive few.

We have teams working around the world, with over 20 nationalities and growing from our offices and remotely. Join us and build a better future

The Role

We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead a high-performing engineering team building and scaling products used by millions of users across the region.

This role is for a strong technical leader who can lead engineers, make sound architecture and engineering decisions, and drive products and systems from idea to production. You will be responsible for both the quality of the engineering team and the quality and speed of what the team ships.

You should be comfortable operating across people, product and technology - setting a high engineering bar while keeping the team focused on delivering real customer and business outcomes.

What You'll Own

• Lead and manage a team of engineers across frontend, backend and full stack development.
• Own engineering delivery for major product areas, ensuring the team ships quickly without compromising reliability and technical quality.
• Work closely with product, design, mobile, backend and AI teams to turn ambiguous product problems into clear technical execution.
• Drive technical architecture and engineering decisions across APIs, databases, integrations, infrastructure and customer-facing systems.
• Set engineering standards around code quality, system design, testing, observability, security and production reliability.
• Stay close to the technical work through architecture reviews, code reviews, debugging and critical engineering decisions.
• Develop engineers through regular feedback, coaching, performance management and clear expectations.
• Identify performance gaps early and take ownership of raising the team's engineering and execution bar.
• Improve engineering processes, tooling and automation to help the team move faster and operate at scale.
• Own production outcomes beyond release: monitor systems, resolve incidents, identify root causes and ensure problems do not repeat.
• Build a strong engineering culture focused on ownership, speed, technical excellence and continuous improvement.

What We're Looking For

• Strong software engineering background with experience building and shipping real production systems.
• Experience leading or managing software engineers and owning engineering delivery.
• Strong technical depth across backend, frontend, APIs, databases, distributed systems or cloud infrastructure.
• Able to make sound architecture and technical trade-offs while balancing speed, scalability and maintainability.
• Strong track record of taking products or systems from idea through development, launch and production.
• Comfortable reviewing technical designs, challenging engineering decisions and debugging complex production issues.
• Strong people leadership with the ability to coach engineers, manage performance and build high-performing teams.
• Strong product sense and ability to connect engineering decisions to customer and business outcomes.
• Able to work fast with ambiguity, establish priorities and drive teams toward clear outcomes.
• Strong ownership mentality - when something breaks or delivery slips, you take responsibility for getting it back on track.

This Role Is Not For

• Managers who want to manage people without staying close to the technology.
• Engineers who want the title of Engineering Manager but do not want accountability for team performance.
• Leaders who need complete specifications before their team can start.
• Managers who measure success by meetings, processes or tickets instead of shipped outcomes.
• People who avoid difficult technical decisions, performance conversations or production issues.
• Candidates who make vague leadership claims without being able to explain what they personally built, led, improved or scaled.

The Bar

We are looking for engineering leaders with real technology career highlights.

A strong highlight is not just managing a large team or working at a famous company. A strong highlight means you personally helped build, ship or scale a serious product, platform or engineering organisation and can clearly explain your contribution.

You should be able to demonstrate both sides of engineering leadership: technical depth and the ability to build a high-performing team that consistently delivers.

Location

This is a hybrid role. You are expected to work from our local office at least 3 days per week, with the remaining days offering flexibility to work remotely.

Candidates should be based in, or able to work from, the location where the role is advertised.

Language

English is our main working language across global teams. Strong English communication is required.

Interview Process

Our process is designed to move fast:

1. Online assessment or practical task
2. Technical / engineering leadership interview
3. CEO / final round

For strong candidates, we aim to complete the process and make an offer within 1 week from the start of the interview process. Candidates who complete assessments quickly will be prioritized.