Senior Software Engineer / Technical Lead - Life & Pensions

iHeadHunt; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

This early-stage UK team role offers high ownership, exposure to complex pension software, and opportunities to drive engineering practices in a fast-growing fintech environment.

Qualifications

• Strong backend engineering experience in Java, C# or similar technologies.
• Experience with complex enterprise systems, APIs, integrations and production-critical software.
• Ideally experience from pensions, insurance, financial services or another regulated software environment.
• Ability to take ownership and work close to both technical and business stakeholders.
• Experience as a technical lead, architect or senior reference point is highly relevant.
• A Computer Science degree or equivalent technical foundation is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Adapting a modern life and pensions platform to the UK market.
• Implementing pensions-specific business logic.
• Building REST APIs and integrations with enterprise systems.
• Supporting UK customer implementations and regulatory requirements.
• Contributing to automated testing, performance and production quality.
• Helping establish strong engineering practices in the UK team.

Skills

Backend engineering

Java

C#

API design

Education

Computer Science degree

Tools

REST APIs

Enterprise integrations

Job description

Become the first senior technical profile in Festina Finance’s UK team

Festina Finance is expanding in the UK and is looking for a senior software engineer who wants more than a standard development role.

This is a chance to become the first senior technical profile in the UK team and help shape how Festina Finance’s life and pensions platform is adapted and scaled for the UK market.

You will work closely with product, architecture and engineering teams in Denmark, while staying close to the UK business, customers and market requirements.

As a Senior Software Engineer / Technical Lead in Festina Life, you will become a key technical contributor in shaping how our life and pensions platform evolves for the UK market. Festina Finance is expanding in the UK, and this role offers a rare opportunity to join at an early stage, becoming the first senior technical profile in our UK team.

You will work at the intersection of software engineering, product development and pension domain expertise, helping adapt, extend and scale the Festina Life platform to meet UK regulatory, business and customer requirements. In this role, you will collaborate closely with our product, architecture and engineering teams in Denmark, while staying connected to the UK business, clients and market insights.

If you are motivated by building high-quality solutions, influencing technical direction and contributing to a modern, domain driven pension platform used by leading financial institutions, this role gives you the chance to make a meaningful impact from day one.

What this role offers you

• Real influence on how Festina Finance builds its UK solution
• A central technical role in a new UK team from an early stage
• Close collaboration with experienced product and architecture teams in Denmark
• Work on complex life and pensions software, not just standard feature development
• A role close to engineering, business needs and customer requirements
• A company backed by strong investors and strategic partners, with international growth ambitions

What you will work on

• Adapting a modern life and pensions platform to the UK market
• Implementing pensions-specific business logic
• Building REST APIs and integrations with enterprise systems
• Supporting UK customer implementations and regulatory requirements
• Contributing to automated testing, performance and production quality
• Helping establish strong engineering practices in the UK team

What we are looking for

• Strong backend engineering experience in Java, C# or similar technologies
• Motivation to work in a Java-based product environment, as Java is the main language at Festina Finance
• Experience with complex enterprise systems, APIs, integrations and production-critical software
• Ideally experience from pensions, insurance, financial services or another regulated software environment
• Ability to take ownership and work close to both technical and business stakeholders
• Experience as a technical lead, architect or senior reference point is highly relevant
• A Computer Science degree or equivalent technical foundation is preferred

Location and setup

Our UK office is located in Manchester City Centre, which will be your primary workplace.

Close collaboration and knowledge sharing are part of everyday work, and you will also have the option to work from home on agreed days, coordinated directly with your team to support a balanced and flexible routine. Occasional travel to Copenhagen should be expected, particularly to build product understanding and maintain close collaboration with our Danish teams.

About Festina Finance

Festina Finance is a Danish fintech/software company developing advanced financial software for pension administrators, pension funds, insurance companies and banks across Europe. The flagship platform, FF Life and Pension, is a modular and configurable core platform supporting different pension and life insurance product types. Festina Finance launched in the UK in 2025 and is now building the team that will support the next phase of growth in the UK market.

www.festinafinance.co.uk