Staff Backend Engineer

Zego; City Of London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading motor insurance provider in London seeks a Staff Backend Engineer to lead architectural decisions and shape the technical strategy of their systems. The role includes driving technical excellence, mentoring engineers, and collaborating across teams. Ideal candidates will have significant experience with scalable systems, particularly in Python. This position offers market-competitive salary and various benefits while supporting flexible hybrid working arrangements.

Benefits

Market-competitive salary

Private medical insurance

Company share options

Generous holiday allowance

Wellbeing benefits

Qualifications

• Deep experience building scalable distributed systems.
• Experience with architecture, observability, and system design.
• Ability to mentor and provide leadership guidance.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture and technical strategy across multiple squads.
• Solve complex technical challenges end-to-end.
• Mentor and coach engineers and tech leads.

Skills

Hands-on Technical Depth

Leadership Without Authority

Strategic Partner

Curious and Growth-Minded

Builder's Mentality

AI Curiosity

Tools

Python

Scala

Job description

About us

At Zego, we know that traditional motor insurance holds good drivers back. It's too complicated, too expensive, and it doesn't take into account how well you actually drive. That's why, since 2016, we've been on a mission to change all of that. Our mission at Zego is to offer the lowest priced insurance for good drivers. From van drivers and gig workers to everyday car drivers, our customers are our driving force - they're at the heart of everything we do. We've sold tens of millions of policies so far, and raised over $200 million in funding. And we're only just getting started.

About the role

We're looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to join Zego as one of our most senior individual contributors. This is a hands‑on technical leadership role where you'll drive architectural decisions, set engineering standards, and shape the technical direction of some of our most important systems. You'll operate across multiple squads, collaborating closely with Engineering Managers, Tech Leads, and cross‑functional stakeholders. As a Staff Engineer, your influence spans both deep technical execution and broad strategic input- you'll be expected to contribute to business‑critical decision‑making, guide complex delivery, and mentor engineers across teams. Your primary focus will be Zego's Python‑based backend systems, though you'll also support our Machine Learning initiatives and may partner with our Scala and Mobile teams depending on your interests and experience.

What you will be doing

• Own architecture and technical strategy across multiple squads, making sound, scalable decisions and seeing them through from whiteboard to production.
• Solve complex technical challenges end‑to‑end, often building the most critical parts of the system yourself to lead by example.
• Set the engineering bar for design, implementation, testing, reliability, and scalability across teams. You'll define and champion technical excellence.
• Collaborate deeply with stakeholders across Product, Data, Strategy, and Business to align on priorities and ensure technical plans support wider business goals.
• Mentor and coach engineers and tech leads, providing both technical and leadership guidance to help them grow.
• Act as a multiplier: bring clarity to ambiguous problems, unblock teams, and help others make sound decisions through deep technical context and crisp communication.
• Contribute to company‑wide technical standards, identifying opportunities to improve processes, practices, and tooling that benefit the entire engineering org.

About you

• Impact‑orientated: You focus on business and user value over pure technical output. You care about measurable outcomes and strive to make the biggest difference with your work.
• Hands‑on Technical Depth: You have deep experience building scalable distributed systems, ideally in Python or a mix of statically and dynamically typed languages. You write high‑quality, production‑ready code and have strong instincts around architecture, observability, and system design.
• Leadership Without Authority: You've led technical direction across multiple teams or orgs, driving alignment without needing formal reporting lines. You elevate the work of others through mentoring, feedback, and example‑setting.
• Strategic Partner: You're as comfortable talking to senior product and business leaders as you are reviewing pull requests. You proactively spot opportunities to improve both what we build and how we build it.
• Curious and Growth‑Minded: You're excited by areas you may not be an expert in yet (e.g. ML systems, mobile integration) and seek to expand your influence by learning and partnering with others.
• Builder's Mentality: You enjoy diving deep into code, systems, and product to understand trade‑offs and unblock teams. You're hands‑on, pragmatic, and not afraid to ship.
• AI‑ You will be someone who's actively curious about how AI can enhance your work - keen to experiment, learn quickly, and apply tools that improve productivity, streamline tasks, or unlock new ways of thinking. Whether you're already hands‑on or fast building confidence, you take ownership of staying ahead and working smarter.

What's it like to work at Zego?

Joining Zego is a career‑defining move. People go further here, reaching their full potential to achieve extraordinary things. We're spread throughout the UK and Europe, and united by our drive to get things done. We're proud of our company and our culture - a friendly and inclusive space where we can lift each other up and celebrate our wins every day. Together, we're setting the bar higher, delivering exceptional work that makes a difference. Our people are the most important part of our story, and everyone here plays a role. There's loads of room to learn and grow, and you'll get the freedom to steer your career wherever you want. You'll work alongside a talented group who embrace each other's differences and aren't afraid of a challenge. We recognise our achievements, learn from our mistakes, and help each other to be the best we can be. Together, we're making insurance matter.

How we work

We believe that teams work better when they have time to collaborate and space to get things done. We call it Zego Hybrid. While some of our team choose to come into our central London office once a week, we're flexible - some people prefer being in once a month or even quarterly. It's all about finding the right balance between collaborative face time and focused home‑working, so we can achieve great results while maintaining a healthy work‑life balance.

Our approach to AI

We believe in the power of AI to meaningfully improve how we work - helping us move faster, think differently, and focus on what matters most. At Zego, we encourage people to stay curious and intentional about how AI is leveraged in their work and teams to drive practical impact every day. This is your chance to do the most meaningful work of your career - and we'll provide you with the tools, support, and freedom to do it well.

Benefits

We reward our people well. Join us and you'll get a market‑competitive salary, private medical insurance, company share options, generous holiday allowance, and a whole lot of wellbeing benefits. We also offer an annual flexible hybrid working contribution, which you can use to support with your travel to the office or towards your own personal development. And that's just for starters! There's more to Zego than just a job - check out our blog for insights, stories, and more.

We're an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability status.