Payments Engineering Lead: Scale & Innovate

GCS Recruitment; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

GCS Recruitment Specialists are seeking an Engineering Lead to drive payments technology in London. You will own a product delivery team, shaping architecture, delivering scalable and secure solutions, and mentoring engineers across the business.

Work in a hybrid model with 3 days in the office, collaborating with Product Managers, Designers, and stakeholders to translate business needs into robust technical outcomes and leadership across the engineering function.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading engineering teams in production.
• Strong software engineering background across modern technology stacks.
• Experience delivering complex technology solutions using Agile or Lean methodologies.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and continuous enhancement of high-quality software solutions.
• Ensuring applications are scalable, reliable, maintainable, and performance-driven.
• Collaborating with Product Managers, Engineers, Designers, and stakeholders to define requirements and deliver outcomes.
• Coaching, mentoring, and developing engineers to support their growth and performance.
• Driving best practices in software engineering, code quality, testing, and secure development.
• Conducting code reviews and promoting knowledge sharing across teams.
• Supporting agile delivery practices and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Influencing technical direction and contributing to architectural decisions.
• Championing modern engineering standards, operational excellence, and innovation.

Skills

Engineering leadership

People management

Software development

Agile delivery

Stakeholder communication

Architectural direction

Tools

Rust

Kotlin

TypeScript

Kubernetes

CI/CD

DevOps

Job description

Engineering Lead - Payments | London (Hybrid)

Lead the Future of Payments Technology

We're looking for an experienced Engineering Lead to join a rapidly evolving payments business that processes billions of pounds in transactions every year across the UK. As the organisation continues its journey towards becoming a standalone fintech, you'll play a key role in shaping innovative products, leading talented engineering teams, and delivering technology solutions that make a real impact.

This is an opportunity to combine hands-on technical leadership with people management, driving engineering excellence while helping teams build scalable, secure, and customer-focused products.

What You'll Be Doing

As an Engineering Lead, you'll take ownership of a product delivery team responsible for developing, deploying, and supporting technology solutions from concept through to production.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading the design, development, and continuous enhancement of high-quality software solutions.
• Ensuring applications are scalable, reliable, maintainable, and performance-driven.
• Collaborating closely with Product Managers, Engineers, Designers, and business stakeholders to define requirements and deliver successful outcomes.
• Coaching, mentoring, and developing engineers to support their growth and performance.
• Driving best practices in software engineering, code quality, testing, and secure development.
• Conducting code reviews and promoting knowledge sharing across teams.
• Supporting agile delivery practices and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Influencing technical direction and contributing to architectural decisions.
• Championing modern engineering standards, operational excellence, and innovation.

What We're Looking For

Essential Experience

• Proven track record of leading engineering teams in a production environment.
• Strong software engineering background with experience across modern technology stacks.
• Experience delivering complex technology solutions using Agile or Lean methodologies.
• Demonstrated people leadership skills, including coaching, mentoring, and performance management.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities, capable of engaging both technical and non-technical audiences.

Desirable Skills

• Experience working in payments, fintech, or other technology-driven organisations.
• Understanding of AI, machine learning, or emerging technologies.
• Hands-on experience with technologies such as Rust, Kotlin, or TypeScript.
• Knowledge of cloud-native architectures, Kubernetes, DevOps practices, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience designing or working with event-driven systems and messaging platforms.

Why Join?

You'll be joining a forward-thinking payments organisation at a pivotal stage of growth and transformation. This role offers the opportunity to influence technology strategy, lead high-performing teams, and help build the next generation of payment solutions used by businesses across the UK.

Location & Working Pattern

• Location: London
• Working Model: Hybrid (3 days per week in the office)

If you're passionate about engineering leadership, modern technology, and building products that operate at scale, we'd love to hear from you.

GCS is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.