Senior Staff Engineer (Payments)

Tem-Energy Limited; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Tem-Energy Limited in the United Kingdom is hiring a Senior Staff Engineer for our Payments squad, part of Saldo, the Billing and Payments Service. You will own the squad's delivery and set the standards it follows, combining hands-on problem solving with leadership and design direction.

In this hands-on role you will write design docs, review code and ADRs, and drive the architecture for payments at scale, while coaching junior engineers to raise the team’s quality and velocity as we grow.

Qualifications

• Proven track record as tech lead; owning squad delivery and standards.

Responsibilities

• Write design docs, review code, solve hard problems with the team.
• Set the technical direction for payments and architecture.
• Own the squad's delivery outcomes and standards.
• Define squad operating model and balance between speed, quality and resilience.
• Cut through ambiguity and drive blockers to resolution.
• Coach junior engineers and lift the team's performance.

Skills

Tech lead

Design docs

Code review

ADR reviews

Cross-team coordination

Architecture direction

Payments systems

Cost optimization

Performance tuning

Job description

Requirements

• A track record as a tech lead, owning the outcome of a squad's delivery and the standards it works to
• A track record of leading from the front line: writing design docs, reviewing PRs and ADRs, and solving problems hands-on while setting direction
• The ability to balance hands-on work on the biggest technical challenges with coaching more junior engineers, holding the whole team to a consistent quality and speed bar
• Experience designing a team's ways of working from scratch, balancing speed, quality and resilience
• Experience owning cross-team sequencing and dependencies, and diagnosing throughput problems rather than just reporting them
• Comfort cutting through real ambiguity to set technical direction, and driving technical blockers to resolution rather than just visibility
• (Desirable) Experience with payments systems
• (Desirable) Experience improving cost-to-process or processing efficiency in a high-volume service
• (Desirable) Experience taking a service from a basic first version to something built for scale

What the job involves

• We're hiring a Senior Staff Engineer for our brand new Payments squad, part of Saldo, our Billing and Payments Service
• Payments at tem works today, but it's a basic service
• We're growing fast, and it needs to be built for the scale we're moving towards
• You'll be the first tech lead in a squad that already has a senior engineer and three junior engineers, and you'll own the outcome of the squad's delivery and the standards it works to
• This is a hands‑on role
• You'll write design docs, review code, solve the hardest problems alongside the team, and set the technical direction for payments
• The number you'll move is the cost of processing every pound that flows through tem
• Your job is to bring it down, and keep it low as we scale
• In your first 12 months, you might:
• Set the architecture direction that takes payments from a functional service to one built for growth
• Define how the squad works, including the balance between speed, quality and resilience that payments demands
• Lift the quality and speed bar for the whole squad, senior and junior engineers alike
• Drive the technical blockers to delivery to resolution, so the squad's work reaches the people who depend on it
• Make payment accuracy and processing efficiency the levers that bring cost-to-process down
• You'll report into the Service Manager for Saldo
• Own the outcome: Take responsibility for the squad's delivery and the standards it works to, so the team ships work we're proud of
• Lead from the front line: Write specs and design docs, give feedback on ADRs, review pull requests, and solve problems directly through code or workflows
• Set the payments architecture direction: Turn a genuinely ambiguous area into a clear technical strategy, without waiting for someone else to define the problem
• Cut the cost to process: Own payment accuracy and processing efficiency as the direct levers on cost-to-process
• Design how the squad works: Define the squad's operating model and set the pace, rather than waiting for a playbook
• Own the big picture: Manage sequencing and dependencies, diagnose why throughput isn't improving, and make sure the squad's work is visible to stakeholders
• Build a high‑performance team: Coach junior engineers while working the hardest problems alongside our senior engineer, and define what good looks like by working the details with the team
• Partner on people decisions: Flag promotion and hiring gaps to your manager, who keeps line management and performance conversations. Decisions on people are made jointly