Senior Software Engineering Manager (Active Savings)

Hargreaves Lansdown PLC; Bristol; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Hybrid working

Pension scheme

Private medical insurance

Job summary

Hargreaves Lansdown in Bristol is seeking an experienced Senior Software Engineering Manager to lead an Active Savings product development team. You will steer a cross-functional group of 25–30 engineers across multiple squads, delivering secure, scalable software for clients and partners.

You will champion architecture, DevOps, and agile practices, partner with product managers, and guide a next-generation replatforming of core systems in a regulated financial environment, while fostering

Qualifications

• Significant experience in senior technology leadership roles within large-scale, regulated environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire a cross-functional engineering team of ~25–30 engineers across multiple squads.
• Ensure best practices in agile delivery, DevOps, secure engineering, and operational support.
• Work with Product Managers and stakeholders to align engineering outcomes with business value.
• Translate complex technical concepts into business-friendly language for senior decision-making.

Skills

Senior leadership

Regulated environments

Retail Banking / Asset Mgmt

Job description

About the role

HL are looking for an experienced and talented Senior Software Engineering Manager to lead an Active Savings product development team in building market-leading solutions for our clients. The Savings application allows HL clients to easily deposit cash into a selection of savings accounts offered by partner banks. It is a bespoke development project with several functional sub-components. This is an opportunity to join the UK’s number one investment services company, managing over £149.7 billion in assets for more than 1.86 million UK investors. As a secure, and highly respected brand, HL offers you the chance to make a genuine impact within one of the UK's most innovative and digitally focused businesses.

What You’ll Be Doing

Lead and inspire a cross-functional engineering team (c.25-30 people across 5 squads) to deliver high-quality software for the Active Savings tribe. Provide structured leadership that ensures consistent delivery, productivity, engagement, and team wellbeing. Foster a culture of technical excellence, purpose, and innovation aligned with HL’s values and our regulated environment. Support the Head of Software Engineering to prepare for a next-generation replatforming of our core trading and customer systems. Recruit, develop, and retain top engineering talent, nurturing a high-performance culture with psychological safety at its core. Ensure best practices in agile delivery, DevOps, secure engineering, and operational support are upheld across the teams. Take ownership of your team's services – ensuring they are secure, reliable, scalable, and continually improved. Work closely with Product Managers and stakeholders to align engineering outcomes with business and client value. Translate complex technical concepts into business-friendly language and influence decision-making at senior levels. Champion continuous learning, cross-functional collaboration, and inclusive team growth.

About You

Significant experience in senior technology leadership roles within large-scale, regulated environments - ideally in Retail Banking and/or Asset and Wealth Management; covering Deposits, Card/SWIFT Payments, Pay By Bank, Faster Payment Service (FPS).

Track record of managing and scaling high-performing software engineering teams (25+), balancing delivery and innovation.

Strong engineering background with the ability to communicate architectural decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

You create guardrails based on scope, technical design, NFRs, and quality—then empower your team to innovate within them.

Client- and product-focused mindset, with experience partnering closely with Product Managers and business teams.

You embrace ambiguity, foster collaboration, and promote psychological safety to help teams navigate change.

Hands-on knowledge of secure API design, authentication services, and mobile development (Swift/Kotlin, React Native).

Knowledge and experience of modern DevOps tools and practices.

Exposure to Figma and Vercel is a great plus.

Experience leading engineering efforts across legacy and modern technology stacks.

Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and align cross-functional teams.

Strong technical degree from a reputable university is highly desirable.

Tech Stack

Java / Springboot / Gradle / HTML / GraphQL / Oracle / MyBatis / Swift / Kotlin Cucumber / Selenium / RestAssured / Jenkins Linux / Windows / AWS / Terraform IaC / Kubernetes

Interview Process

This will be a 3-stage interview process comprising an initial informal call with the hiring manager, followed by two structured interviews.

Working Schedule

37.5 hours per week, with flexibility based on business demands and 2/3 days a week in our Bristol office.

Why us?

Here at HL, we’re the UK’s number 1 investment platform for private investors, based in Bristol.

For more than 40 years we’ve helped investors save time, tax and money on their investments.

To achieve our mission, we believe we have a workplace like no other, with constant learning, dynamic teams, and a great ethos.

We're steered by core values that promote service, quality, innovation, and opportunity in everything we do.

What's on offer?

• Discretionary annual bonus* and annual pay review
• 25 days* holiday plus bank holidays and 1-day additional Christmas closure
• Option to purchase an additional 5 days holiday**
• Flexible working options available, including hybrid working
• Enhanced parental leave
• Pension scheme up to 11% employer contribution
• Income Protection and Life insurance (4 x salary core level of cover)
• Private medical insurance*
• Health care cash plans - including optical, dental, and outpatient care
• Health screening programme
• Help@hand - confidential support including mental health counselling and remote GP
• Wellhub - unlimited access to fitness providers and wellness coach sessions
• Variety of travel to work schemes with bike storage and shower facilities
• Inhouse barista and deli serving subsidised coffee and sandwiches
• Two paid volunteering days per year * dependant on role level
• ** only available to select during our annual benefits window, in November each year

Hargreaves Lansdown is an inclusive employer that values diversity in its workforce.

We encourage applications from all individuals without regard to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or age.

This role may also be available on a flexible working or part time basis – please ask the Recruitment & Onboarding team for more information.

Please note, we are unable to provide employment sponsorship to candidates.

We are a technology centre responsible for software development and strategic digital transformation of the British financial market giant, Hargreaves Lansdown. Our goal is to provide secure software to help investors perform their financial operations. We promote innovative technologies that enable delivery of financial services. Customer needs, best practices, quality and good design lie at the heart of our DNA. High energy, access to new technologies, opportunities to create innovative solutions, international work environment, as well a team of open people who like each other and who are curious about each other and the world around them – this is our reality, which offers you limitless development opportunities on a daily basis.