Senior Forward Deployed Engineer

ophelos; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Ophelos is expanding its Forward Deployed Engineering team to support market onboarding and integration work across Europe. You will operate at the intersection of engineering and markets, upholding rigorous technical standards while aligning with market priorities.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you’ll own per-market deployments, integrations, and go-live schedules, collaborating with Markets Success and client teams to deliver scalable solutions.

Qualifications

• Production proficiency in Python and TypeScript; Ruby is a plus.
• Experience with complex data schemas, transformation, validation, reconciliation, and idempotency.
• Experience evaluating, mapping, and integrating third-party APIs and protocols safely.
• Ability to translate technical details clearly to client executives, product managers, and software eng.

Responsibilities

• Build, scale, and optimize per-market client data ingestion and egestion integrations.
• Connect market-specific payment providers, SMS, email, postal, and messaging APIs.
• Leverage existing configuration surfaces to adapt Ophelos to local regulations and workflow needs.
• Own complete market onboarding end-to-end and act as the technical authority in client discussions.
• Aggregate market needs into the Abstraction API roadmap and contribute to the core product.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

Ruby

API integration

Data processing

Cross-functional comms

Job description

Our Mission

At Ophelos, we believe in a different way to deal with debt. One that puts empathy and understanding front and centre, approaching our customers as individuals - no matter what they're going through.

For too long, people in debt have borne the brunt of poor industry practices. Intimidating tactics, time-consuming customer service and a one-size-fits-all approach that overlooks the reasons anyone can fall into debt in the first place. Meanwhile, businesses suffer too. Poor customer experience translates to poor customer satisfaction, high churn rates, bad brand reputation and ultimately missed opportunities.

That's why we're taking a radically different approach. Pioneering an industry-first AI-native collections platform, we build products that help individuals clear their debts in a way that suits them, whilst providing businesses with an improved customer experience and game-changing insights into their customer base.

Since our launch in 2021, we've worked with some of the UK's leading companies, including Octopus, Scottish Power and Philips - helping millions of people move toward a more stable, debt-free future. In 2023, we were acquired by Intrum, Europe's biggest credit management service and have begun the next phase in our growth - expansion into 17 European markets over the next two years.

About Ophelos

At Ophelos, we are reimagining credit, collections, and financial health infrastructure across Europe. Our mission is to build fairer, smarter, and more empathetic financial systems through modern software engineering, data science, and thoughtful product design.

As we expand into new markets across Europe, we face a core challenge: adapting to complex local banking standards, regulatory requirements, payment systems, and client integrations while maintaining a clean, scalable core platform. That's where Forward Deployed Engineering comes in.

The Role

Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) make Ophelos work in each market without changing what Ophelos fundamentally is. FDEs operate right at the intersection of high-calibre software engineering and real-world market expansion.

In this role, you will hold a unique position across Engineering and Markets:

Engineering owns your growth & craft: You are held to rigorous engineering standards-code reviews, architecture design, technical excellence, line management, progression, and pay.

Markets owns the priorities: You work hand-in-hand with named Markets counterparts to prioritize client deployments, integrations, and go-live schedules.

What You'll Do

• Edge & Integration Engineering: Build, scale, and optimize per-market client data ingestion and egestion integrations, including APIs, file formats, validation, reconciliation, and replay mechanisms.
• Payment & Comms Integration: Connect market-specific payment providers, SMS, email, postal, and messaging vendor APIs through clean platform abstractions.
• Configuration & Localisation: Leverage and expand existing configuration surfaces to adapt Ophelos to local regulations and workflow needs.
• Market Operations & Defects: Own and resolve market-specific defects within the integration and configuration layers.
• Field-to-Roadmap Influence: Collect market needs, measure commercial impact, and author structured Product Cases stating unlock value to shape the core product roadmap.
• Client & Partner Engagement: Partner directly with Markets Success and client technical teams during onboarding across Europe.

Our Operating Principles

• Configure First: Solve requests using existing product configuration surfaces to deliver fast, maintainable solutions.
• Integrate at the Edge: Build robust integration layers against clean, stable Abstraction APIs.
• Escalate with Impact: When core capabilities are missing, build compelling business cases to drive product platform development rather than modifying core code directly.

Role Expectations & Responsibilities

• Owns complete market onboarding end-to-end, acting as the primary technical authority in client discussions.
• Aggregates multi-market needs into the Abstraction API roadmap with product engineering.
• Builds reusable integration patterns, market playbooks, and mentors mid-level FDEs.
• Confidently leads technical and executive-level discussions with enterprise financial institutions.

What We're Looking For

Core Technical Requirements

• Strong Software Engineering Skills: Production proficiency in Python and TypeScript, with Ruby experience considered a plus.
• Data Fluency Under Failure: Hands-on experience with complex schemas, data transformation, validation, reconciliation, idempotency, and replay logic.
• Third-Party Integration Experience: Demonstrated ability to evaluate, map, and integrate third-party APIs and protocols safely and reliably.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Ability to translate technical details clearly to client executives, product managers, and software eng