Principal Engineer - Repeats

iwoca; London; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading fintech company in London is hiring a Principal Engineer to lead the development of systems that drive decision-making for existing customers. This role involves collaboration across teams to create a dynamic, adaptive system that meets customer needs and improves the lending experience. Candidates should have strong leadership and technical skills, with experience in systems architecture and software development. Flexible working options available.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Medical insurance

25 days' holiday

Generous parental leave

Cycle-to-work scheme

Qualifications

• Expertise in systems architecture with complex domain models.
• Advanced proficiency in an object-oriented programming language.
• Demonstrable leadership skills in mentoring and inspiring teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of systems for credit assessment.
• Build adaptive systems integrating real-time data.
• Collaborate across teams to enhance customer experiences.

Skills

Systems architecture

Software development

Leadership

Collaboration with stakeholders

Education

Degree in a related field (maths, physics, computer science, engineering)

Tools

Python

Django

PostgreSQL

Job description

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Principal Engineer - Repeats Team

Hybrid in London / Remote within the UK

We're hiring a Principal Engineer

Lead the evolution of our decision-making and offers-generating systems and architecture. You'll build and improve critical systems, shape iwoca's technical vision, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver innovative, data-driven solutions.

The company

Imagine a world where every small business has the power to thrive. That's the world we're building at iwoca. Small businesses aren't just statistics - they're the heartbeat of our communities, the character of our high streets, and the engine of our economy. Since 2012, we've revolutionised how these businesses access finance, turning what was once a lengthy, frustrating process into something remarkable: funding that's fast, flexible, and actually works for modern businesses.

Our impact speaks for itself: we've provided billions in funding to over 150,000 businesses across Europe, making us one of the continent's leading fintech innovators. But we're just getting started. Our mission? To empower one million businesses with the financial tools they deserve.

We combine cutting-edge technology and data science with genuine human understanding to make finance feel less like a barrier and more like a superpower. Whether it's managing cash flow or seizing unexpected opportunities, we ensure businesses get the funds they need - often within minutes.

The team

The Repeats team is responsible for the lending strategy and digital user experience of our recurring customers. They own all the product decisions that occur after a customer has taken their first funding. This includes the user journey for repeat customers, the eligibility and document requirements for repeat applications, the offer terms (such as offered amount or pricing), among other things. The team continuously experiments with new product ideas and ensures these are delivered through an intuitive, high-performing digital experience. This involves close collaboration across engineering, product, data, and design to align offer strategy with customer needs and business goals.

The role

You'll help iwoca realize a long-term vision for a dynamic, data-driven document and offer strategy for existing customers. You'll lead the design and development of systems that intelligently route existing customers to the most appropriate credit-assessment process, and the most appropriate offer terms based on their unique profile and needs. This means moving beyond static rules to build scalable, adaptive systems that integrate real-time data and business logic. Your work will be central to how we deliver the right product, to the right customer, at the right time - a capability that's critical to iwoca's future growth.

Technical autonomy:

• Re-architect the team's code to meet an ambitious set of ever-changing challenges, collaborating with principal engineers in other teams to design and deliver a coherent system as it evolves to meet our long-term goals.
• Conceive projects for the team to continuously improve aspects of various systems and processes.

Leadership and influence:

• Lead the evolution of our system architecture to optimize customer journeys and enhance decision-making and offer generation processes.
• Build strong stakeholder relationships, mentor junior developers, and foster a culture of learning and innovation.
• Share a clear technical vision that aligns with long-term goals while working closely with tech, product, and analytics teams.

Startup-up culture in a scale-up environment:

• Enjoy open communication and access to leadership without layers of bureaucracy.
• Embrace the energy and adaptability of a startup, where decisions are made quickly, and every day brings new opportunities and challenges.
• Collaborate with teams that use shared systems and infrastructure, with support from resources like a DevOps team.

The requirements

Essential:

• Expertise in systems architecture, including designing and managing complex domain models.
• Advanced proficiency in software development using an object-oriented language.
• Business-orientation: you can collaborate with stakeholders to translate complex challenges into scalable solutions. You have owned technical systems that deliver business outcomes in fast-paced environments.
• Demonstrable leadership skills: you have mentored juniors and inspired teams to deliver cross-functional projects. You can balance hands-on coding with strategic planning.
• Experience building and shaping large systems in complex business domains.

Bonus:

• Experience with Python, Django or PostgreSQL.
• Familiarity with data analytics and Machine Learning processes.
• An understanding of complex data systems, including event-sourced data models.
• A strong numerical or technical background, ideally with a degree in maths, physics, computer science, engineering, or a related field.
• Front-end development experience.

The salary

We expect to pay from £100,000 - £140,000 for this role. But, we're open-minded, so definitely include your salary goals with your application. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates, and run quarterly performance and salary reviews.

The culture

At iwoca, we prioritize a culture of learning, growth, and support, and invest in the professional development of our team members. We value diversity in thought and skill, and encourage you to explore new areas of interest to help us improve our products and services.

The offices

We put a lot of effort into making iwoca a brilliant place to work:

• Offices in London, Leeds, and Frankfurt with plenty of drinks and snacks
• Events and clubs, like bingo, movie nights, yoga classes, football, etc.

The benefits

• Flexible working hours
• Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership, and a private GP service for you, your partner, and your dependents.
• 25 days' holiday, an extra day off for your birthday, the option to buy or sell an additional 5 days of annual leave, unlimited unpaid leave, and one-month fully paid sabbatical after 4 years.
• Instant access to emotional and mental health support with our partner, Spill.
• Pension and share options.
• Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.
• Paid volunteering day to support your chosen charity.
• Cycle-to-work scheme and electric car scheme.
• Two company retreats a year, we've been to France, Italy, Spain and further afield.

And to make sure we all keep learning, we offer:

• A learning and development budget for everyone.
• Access to learning platforms like Treehouse.

Job ID f768851f-a3e3-443e-9520-9c5a7b0e13f7