Head of Engineering, Cards

Careers at Tide; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary & share options

Generous annual leave

Parental leave

Sabbatical

Salary sacrifice benefits

Private health insurance

Life & accident cover

Mental wellbeing resources

Retirement planning

Volunteer & development days

Learning & development budget

Work from abroad up to 90 days

Home office setup contribution

Laptop provided

Snacks & meals

Job summary

Tide is transforming small business banking with an expansive Cards platform, spanning the UK, EU and India. As Head of Engineering, Cards, you will shape the technical direction, build leadership, and ensure reliability, cost efficiency and strong partner relationships across processors and schemes.

You will guide distributed teams, collaborate with Product and Commercial to deliver the roadmap, embed AI-enabled practices, and drive architecture decisions for scalable, secure card services.

Qualifications

• Experience leading large, distributed engineering teams.
• Strong background in cards, payments or banking.
• Proven track record delivering reliable, scalable platforms.
• Experience with AI coding agents is a plus.
• Ability to collaborate with Product, Commercial and Finance leaders on business outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop engineering managers and senior engineers across distributed teams.
• Define the technical strategy and architecture for the Cards domain.
• Drive reliability, scalability and cost efficiency across card issuing and processing.
• Embed AI-assisted and agentic development practices across engineering teams.
• Partner with Product, Design and Commercial teams to prioritise and deliver the roadmap.
• Own technical relationships with card processors and schemes, including integrations and certifications.
• Strengthen engineering capabilities, particularly at Staff and senior IC levels.
• Collaborate with other engineering leaders across Payments on shared infrastructure.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Cards/payments domain

Distributed teams

Technical strategy

AI in software

Stakeholder management

Tools

Java

Spring Boot

AWS

PostgreSQL

SQS/SNS

Kubernetes

CI/CD

GitHub

Flutter

Angular

Job description

At Tide, we help SMEs save time and money in the running of their businesses by not only offering business accounts and related banking services, but also a comprehensive set of highly usable and connected administrative solutions, from invoicing to accounting.

Tide is transforming the small business banking market and now supports over 2 million members globally across the UK, Germany and France.

Using advanced technology, all solutions are designed with SMEs in mind. With quick onboarding, low fees and innovative features, we thrive on making data driven decisions to serve our mission: to help SMEs save time and money so they can get back to doing what they love.

• Tide is available for UK, German and French SMEs
• Over 2 million members globally and rapidly growing
• Over $300 million raised in funding
• 3,000 Tideans globally
• We have offices in Central London, with a member support and technology centre in Sofia, Bulgaria, technology centres in Serbia, Romania, Lithuania and Hyderabad and offices in Gurugram, New Delhi, Berlin, Paris and Luxembourg

ABOUT THE TEAM:

Cards is one of the largest revenue lines at Tide. The domain owns everything that happens on the card: issuing and processing across the UK, EU and India, each with its own processors, card schemes and regulators.

This includes prepaid, debit, multi-currency and team cards, alongside products such as Apple Pay and Google Pay tokenisation, 3DS, card controls and settlement.

The teams are cross-functional, working closely with product, design, commercial and operations. Engineering comprises three teams, with engineers based in Bulgaria, Lithuania and India.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

As Head of Engineering, Cards, you will lead the engineering organisation across the UK, EU and India, shaping the next phase of the Cards platform.

With the core platform transformation largely complete, your focus will be on:

• Product and member experience: Partnering with Product and Design to improve card experiences, including tokenisation, payment journeys, team controls and reducing false declines.
• AI-led engineering: Embedding AI coding agents across the software development lifecycle to improve engineering productivity, delivery speed and quality.
• Platform and commercial ownership: Completing the transition from our legacy processor, strengthening partner relationships and driving improvements in cost efficiency and unit economics.

You will set the technical direction, develop engineering leadership and ensure the platform remains reliable, scalable and commercially sustainable.

As Head of Engineering, Cards, you will:

• Lead and develop engineering managers and senior engineers across distributed teams.
• Define the technical strategy and architecture for the Cards domain.
• Drive reliability, scalability and cost efficiency across card issuing and processing.
• Embed AI-assisted and agentic development practices across engineering teams.
• Partner with Product, Design and Commercial teams to prioritise and deliver the roadmap.
• Own technical relationships with card processors and schemes, including integrations and certifications.
• Strengthen engineering capabilities, particularly at Staff and senior IC levels.
• Collaborate with other engineering leaders across Payments on shared infrastructure.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR:

We are looking for an experienced engineering leader with a strong technical foundation and a track record of leading large, distributed engineering organisations.

Experience and background

• Experience leading engineering managers and large engineering teams.
• Strong experience in cards, payments or banking, with a deep understanding of card issuing, processing and card scheme operations. Experience on either the issuer or processor side is a strong plus.
• Experience building and operating distributed engineering teams across multiple locations.
• Proven ability to improve engineering delivery, productivity and quality.
• Experience partnering with Product, Commercial and Finance leaders on business outcomes and unit economics.
• Experience managing third‑party technology providers and strategic partnerships.

Technical expertise

• Strong understanding of microservices, event‑driven architecture and cloud‑native systems.
• Experience with relational databases, distributed systems and large‑scale transaction processing.Ability to challenge architectural decisions and engage in technical and production‑level discussions.
• Hands‑on experience with AI coding agents and their application across the software development lifecycle.

Leadership

• Ability to set technical direction and drive execution through engineering leaders.
• Strong commercial acumen and data‑driven decision‑making.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• A strong focus on developing engineering talent and building high‑performing teams.

OUR TECH STACK:

Java and Spring Boot microservices running on AWS, with PostgreSQL as our primary datastore. We use SNS/SQS for asynchronous and event‑driven messaging. Observability is Coralogix. CI/CD runs through GitHub with automated testing and security scanning. Mobile is Flutter, web is Angular.

WHAT YOU’LL GET IN RETURN:

Our location‑specific employee benefits are designed to cater to the unique needs of Tideans:

• Competitive Compensation – Competitive salary and share options.
• Time Off – Generous annual leave on top of bank holidays.
• Parental Leave – Paid maternity, paternity, and adoption leave to support your family journey.
• Sabbatical – Extended unpaid and paid leave options after completing milestone years with Tide.
• Access to salary sacrifice benefits – like Nursery (could save up to 47% on fees!) and Cycle to Work discounts.
• Health Insurance – Comprehensive Private family insurance plan.
• Life & Accident Cover – Comprehensive accidental and life insurance protection.
• Mental Wellbeing – Access to therapy sessions, courses, meditations, and workshops.
• Retirement Planning – Build your retirement fund faster with Tide’s pension scheme on eligible earnings.
• Volunteering & Development Days – Paid days annually for volunteering or personal growth.
• Learning & Development – Annual budget for books, courses, coaching, and more.
• WOO (Work Outside the Office) – Work from abroad for up to 90 days annually.
• Home Office Setup – Contribution towards setting up your home office
• Laptop Ownership – Keep your old laptop and get a new one when it’s time for a replacement.
• Snacks & Meals – Daily breakfast spread with all‑day coffee, tea, and juices.

TIDEAN WAYS OF WORKING

At Tide, we champion a flexible workplace model that supports both in‑person and remote work to cater to the specific needs of our different teams.

While remote work is supported, we believe in the power of face‑to‑face interactions to foster team spirit and collaboration. Our offices are designed as hubs for innovation and team‑building, where we encourage regular in‑person gatherings to foster a strong sense of community.

TIDE IS A PLACE FOR EVERYONE

At Tide, we believe that we can only succeed if we let our differences enrich our culture. Our Tideans come from a variety of backgrounds and experience levels. We consider everyone irrespective of their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, veteran, neurodiversity or differently‑abled status. We celebrate diversity in our workforce as a cornerstone of our success. Our commitment to a broad spectrum of ideas and backgrounds is what enables us to build products that resonate with our members’ diverse needs and lives.

We are One Team and foster a transparent and inclusive environment, where everyone’s voice is heard.

At Tide, we thrive on diversity, embracing various backgrounds and experiences. We welcome all individuals regardless of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. Our inclusive culture is key to our success, helping us build products that meet our members' diverse needs. We are One Team, committed to transparency and ensuring everyone’s voice is heard.