Staff Engineer

Wheely; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 144,000 - 176,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work arrangement

Salary from £160,000 per year

Employee stock options

Private medical and dental insurance

Life and critical illness cover

MacBook Pro + 4k display

Relocation support with visa Spons

Job summary

Wheely, a leading platform in urban mobility, seeks a Staff Engineer to join its Platform team. You will own the architecture and reliability of backend systems, drive performance, and guide a high-performing engineering organization.

This senior role collaborates with product, data, and infra leaders to deliver fast, resilient services at scale. You will shape technical standards, oversee migrations (including the Ruby monolith move), and mentor teams to enable a premium ride-hailing experience

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with backend focus.
• Proven track record designing and operating large-scale distributed systems.
• Deep understanding of backend architecture, infrastructure, and platform concerns.
• Experience with consumer-scale products or marketplaces.
• Ability to make high-quality architectural decisions and lead teams.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision, architecture, and standards across backend systems.
• Ensure system reliability, scalability, and performance at global consumer scale.
• Make high-quality architectural decisions across distributed systems, APIs, and data infrastructure.
• Improve system performance, latency, and fault tolerance.
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, and engineering excellence.
• Support domain-based team structures (pricing, matching, supply engagement).

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems design

Performance optimization

High availability

Technical judgment

Consumer-scale product experience

Job description

About The Role

We are looking for a Staff Engineer to join our Platform team that creates the foundation that allows our entire engineering organisation to move fast. This means building shared tooling, managing migrations (including our move from a Ruby monolith), and evolving our infrastructure.

This is a senior leadership role for a deeply technical leader who combines strong backend and infrastructure expertise with the ability to build and scale high-performing teams. You will be responsible for the architecture, reliability, and performance of all backend systems powering Wheely’s platform.

You will work closely with product, data, and infrastructure leaders to ensure our systems are fast, resilient, and scalable — enabling us to deliver the most reliable and premium ride-hailing experience in the world.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision, architecture, and standards across backend systems
• Ensure system reliability, scalability, and performance at global consumer scale
• Make high-quality architectural decisions across distributed systems, APIs, and data infrastructure
• Improve system performance, latency, and fault tolerance
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, and engineering excellence
• Support domain-based team structures (e.g. pricing, matching, supply engagement)

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with strong backend expertise
• Proven track record of designing and operating large-scale distributed systems
• Deep understanding of backend architecture, infrastructure, and platform concerns
• High technical judgment and attention to detail
• Experience in consumer-scale products or marketplaces
• Background in performance-critical systems (low latency, high availability)

What We Offer

• Office-based role in West London, four days a week with flexible start and finish times, plus one remote day of your choice
• Salary starting from £160,000
• Employee stock options plan
• Private medical and dental insurance
• Life and critical illness cover
• Latest-generation MacBook Pro and 4k display
• Monthly credit towards Wheely journeys
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Professional development stipend
• Relocation support, including visa sponsorship and allowance