Lead Python Developer

Fundment; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Fundment is seeking a Lead Python Developer to guide a pod of 3–4 engineers, balancing hands-on coding (about 50%) with technical leadership. You’ll drive delivery and ensure the team builds reliable, maintainable systems that serve real business needs.

Experience in regulated environments is preferred. Collaborating with product managers to clarify PRDs, produce accurate estimates, and prioritise work, you’ll oversee sprint planning, architecture discussions, and mentoring.

Qualifications

• 5+ years commercial Python experience in backend systems.
• Experience leading a small pod or acting as tech lead in an agile environment.
• Strong judgement on priorities, trade-offs, and production support.
• Effective communicator, bridging the technical and non-technical discussions.
• Ownership mentality - takes responsibility for pod outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of features and fixes, writing clean, performant, secure code aligned with business goals
• Review PRDs with the PM to ensure clarity, highlight edge cases, and produce accurate estimation
• Own sprint planning, and pod-level execution, including scoping, sequencing and overseeing delivery
• Proactively escape delivery risks, technical blockers or trade-offs to your Engineering Manager for input or alignment
• Lead initial architecture and technical design for your pod’s work, running a collaborate review process with EMs and other relevant leads before implementation
• Raise team standards through mentoring, code reviews, and setting strong technical example
• Ensure production readiness - triage and prioritise live issues with appropriate urgency, coordinating with App Support and escalating when needed
• Coordinate rollouts with the PM and App Support, ensuring smooth deployments and follow through after release
• Continuously improve local engineering practice, tooling and system resilience
• Represent your pod in scrum-of-scrums and cross-pod delivery initiatives

Skills

Python

Leadership

Communication

Ownership

Agile

Tools

FastAPI

Pydantic

SQLAlchemy

PyTest

Pandas

Numpy

Job description

As a Lead Python Developer at Fundment, you’ll lead a pod of 3 - 4 engineers, including yourself, combining hands-on development (around 50% of your time) with technical leadership. You’ll drive execution, uphold delivery quality, and ensure the team builds reliable, maintainable systems that serve real business needs.

You’ll collaborate closely with product managers - reviewing PRDs to ensure they’re clear, technically feasible, and scoped appropriately. Enabling you to produce accurate estimation and help PMs prioritise effectively. While they focus on broader coordination, you’ll keep the pod aligned, focused, and delivering at a high standard.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead development of features and fixes, writing clean, performant, secure code aligned with business goals
• Review PRDs with the PM to ensure clarity, highlight edge cases, and produce accurate estimation
• Own sprint planning, and pod-level execution, including scoping, sequencing and overseeing delivery
• Proactively escape delivery risks, technical blockers or trade-offs to your Engineering Manager for input or alignment
• Lead initial architecture and technical design for your pod’s work, running a collaborate review process with EMs and other relevant leads before implementation
• Raise team standards through mentoring, code reviews, and setting strong technical example
• Ensure production readiness - triage and prioritise live issues with appropriate urgency, coordinating with App Support and escalating when needed
• Coordinate rollouts with the PM and App Support, ensuring smooth deployments and follow through after release
• Continuously improve local engineering practice, tooling and system resilience
• Represent your pod in scrum-of-scrums and cross-pod delivery initiatives

Requirements

Experience & Leadership

• 5+ years commercial Python experience in backend systems
• Experience leading a small pod or acting as tech lead in an agile environment
• Strong judgement on priorities, trade-offs, and production support
• Effective communicator, bridging the technical and non-technical discussions
• Business focused - weighs immediate and longer-term business impact against purely technical / theoretical enhancement
• Able to influence and gain trust through mentoring and unblocking
• Ownership mentality - takes responsibility for pod outcomes
• Experience gained in a small founder led/scaling business
• Knowledge of FCA compliance/Financial Services/regulated environment preferred
• Highly motivated to learn about Fundment’s products

Technical Expertise:

• Python: FastAPI, Pydantic, SQLAlchemy, PyTest, Pandas, Numpy
• Cloud:
• Experience supporting production systems
• Security & Compliance: Familiar with secure coding and regulated environments

Values

• Collaborative - Deliver as a team, communicate clearly, and prioritise collective outcomes
• Innovative - Challenge what doesn’t work, try new approaches, and keep improving
• Supportive - Help your team succeed, give clear feedback, and respect people’s context
• Trustworthy - Follow through, be transparent, and fix what you break
• Flexible - Adapt to changing needs, focus on outcomes, and protect time for deep work