Senior Back End Engineer - FinTech

iwoca Ltd; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading fintech company in London is seeking a Senior Back-end Engineer to lead projects in payment technology. This role involves architecting scalable solutions and collaborating with various teams while working in a hybrid model. Candidates should have strong Python skills, experience with relational databases, and a solid technical background. The position offers a competitive salary and numerous benefits focused on professional development and work-life balance.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Medical insurance including gym membership

Private GP service

25 days holiday plus extra birthday day

Paid sabbatical after four years

Counselling and therapy sessions

3% Pension contributions

Employee equity incentive scheme

Generous parental leave

Electric car and cycle-to-work schemes

Company retreats

Qualifications

• Experience building systems that process a large number of transactions (10,000+ per day).
• Experience working with infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with Rust considered a bonus.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of well-defined projects involving many stakeholders.
• Architect and implement scalable solutions for complex challenges.
• Translate ambiguous product requirements into technical plans.

Skills

Building scalable back-end systems for payments

Proficiency in Python

Experience with relational databases

Strong numerical or technical background

Education

Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Maths, or related field

Tools

PostgreSQL

Django Framework

DevOps

Job description

Overview

Senior Back-end Engineer - Finance Technology — Hybrid in London (UK) or Remote within the UK.

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 more than 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 a business is managing cash flow or seizing unexpected opportunities, we ensure they get the funds they need - often within minutes.

The team

The Finance Technology team builds and maintains the payment infrastructure and financial data systems that power iwoca's growth. The team partners with the Finance team to build scalable tools and supports other product teams to launch new products with enhancements to the payment infrastructure and financial data systems. As a group of skilled back-end engineers, they work closely with a dedicated Tech Lead and Product Manager, using Agile methods to ship code frequently and solve complex problems together. Three of the team work remotely and five are hybrid, working 1-3 days per week in the London office.

The role

Responsibility and Autonomy:

• Lead the delivery of well-defined projects involving many stakeholders and systems.
• Go beyond the code to develop a deep expertise in the fintech team's domain, understand our core financial products and our stakeholder needs to become a trusted technical advisor to the business.
• Perform detailed technical scoping and prototyping to support feasibility testing and decision making.

Delivery and Collaboration

• Architect and implement scalable solutions for complex challenges, such as building a new ledger system or integrating real-time payments.
• Translate ambiguous product requirements into clear, actionable technical plans that guide the team's work.
• Contribute high-quality, production-ready code and foster a collaborative environment by reviewing work, helping to troubleshoot live issues, and writing useful documentation.

Learning and Growth

• Embrace and demonstrate a growth mindset by sharing new technologies and best practices within the team and across the company.
• Work with the Tech Lead to improve our development and agile practices.

The requirements

Essential:

• Experience building scalable back-end systems for payments or financial ledgers
• Proficiency in Python and experience with relational databases, ideally PostgreSQL
• Experience building highly available systems that process a large number of transactions (10,000+ per day)
• A strong numerical or technical background (for example, a degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Maths, or a related field).

Bonus:

• Experience with the Django framework.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD pipelines (DevOps).
• Experience with Rust.

The salary

We expect to pay from £70,000-£100,000 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 prioritise a culture of learning, growth, and support, and invest in the professional development of our team members. We value thought and skill diversity, and encourage you to explore new areas of interest to help us innovate and improve our products and services.

The offices

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

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

The benefits

• Flexible working hours
• Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership
• A private GP service (separate from Vitality) for you, your partner, and your dependents
• 25 days' holiday per year, an extra day off for your birthday, the option to buy or sell an additional five days of annual leave, and unlimited unpaid leave
• A one-month, fully paid sabbatical after four years
• Instant access to external counselling and therapy sessions for team members that need emotional or mental health support
• 3% Pension contributions on total earnings
• An employee equity incentive scheme
• Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.
• Electric car scheme and cycle to work 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
• Company-wide talks with internal and external speakers
• Access to learning platforms like Treehouse