Staff Backend Architect (Hybrid) — Rails & AI Finance

Cleo; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful equity

Comprehensive health

Dental and vision insurance

Mental health support

One-month sabbatical after four years

Learning and development platform

Pension or retirement contributions

Location-specific leave entitlements

Job summary

Cleo is hiring a Staff Backend Engineer for our Financial Assistant Pillar. You will shape technical direction and drive delivery across multiple product squads, with hands-on work in a Ruby on Rails monolith and API/data-model design.

You will mentor engineers, influence architectural choices, and partner with senior peers to deliver high-impact initiatives that improve users’ financial health. This role emphasizes leadership without authority and broad impact across teams.

Qualifications

• You’re excited by the opportunity to own and influence technical direction at a pillar level.
• You’ve operated at senior/staff level across multiple teams or complex domains.
• You bring strong technical judgment and think in long-term, scalable solutions.
• You’re comfortable leading without authority and aligning teams around a shared direction.
• You have a track record of building systems and practices used beyond your immediate team.
• You enjoy mentoring and raising the bar for others.
• You have strong, hands‑on experience with Ruby on Rails (essential).

Responsibilities

• Partnering with senior peers to define architecture and lead complex, high-impact initiatives
• Bringing teams together to ship ambitious product work that improves users’ financial health
• Building shared systems, patterns, and tooling that raise the bar across engineering
• Staying hands‑on in our Ruby on Rails monolith -- designing APIs, data models, and scalable services
• Anticipating risks and opportunities early, influencing plans and technical strategy
• Mentoring engineers and TLs, growing the next generation of technical leaders

Skills

Ruby on Rails

Mentoring engineers

Architecture definition

Technical leadership

Job description

Cleo is hiring a Staff Backend Engineer for our Financial Assistant Pillar. You will shape technical direction and drive delivery across multiple product squads, with hands-on work in a Ruby on Rails monolith and API/data-model design.

You will mentor engineers, influence architectural choices, and partner with senior peers to deliver high-impact initiatives that improve users’ financial health. This role emphasizes leadership without authority and broad impact across teams.