Staff Engineer

Performativ; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity

Growth opportunities

Job summary

Performativ, a fintech scaleup in Greater London, is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to tackle complex technical challenges and drive system improvements. This role involves designing robust distributed systems that operate at scale and leveraging AI tools for efficiency.

The ideal candidate will possess experience in production systems, strong debugging skills, and the ability to work autonomously in a dynamic environment. Join a passionate team and contribute to building the future of investment advisory infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Experience building systems in production at scale.
• Strong intuition for cloud infrastructure and engineering tradeoffs.
• Hands-on coding skills in critical paths.

Responsibilities

• Solve complex technical problems across the platform.
• Improve scalability, performance, and reliability.
• Design distributed systems for millions of clients.

Skills

Distributed systems

Cloud infrastructure

Debugging

AI and agent-based tools

Job description

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will take on the hardest technical problems across Performativ’s platform and turn complexity into systems that scale. You will move to where things break, slow down, or do not scale, and fix them. You will also help evolve how we build by pushing pragmatic use of AI and agent-based tooling in ways that increase speed without losing control.

What you’ll do

• Take on the hardest technical problems across the platform and drive them to resolution.
• Move across teams and systems to improve scalability, performance, and reliability.
• Design and evolve distributed systems operating at million-client scale.
• Find weak points early and fix them before they turn into incidents.
• Write production-grade code in the parts of the system that matter most.
• Turn unclear situations into concrete solutions that ship.
• Introduce better ways of working, including pragmatic use of agent-assisted workflows where they add real leverage.
• Challenge technical decisions and push for simpler, more robust solutions.
• Raise the bar for engineering quality through your actions, not process.
• Help teams move faster by removing friction and unnecessary complexity.

What we’re looking for

• You’ve built systems that run in production at scale and understand what breaks.
• You have strong intuition for distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and engineering tradeoffs.
• Experience in fintech, wealth management, or other regulated environments is a plus, not a requirement.
• You do not need everything defined upfront and can operate in ambiguity while still delivering.
• You are hands‑on and comfortable writing code in critical paths.
• You’ve influenced technical direction across teams through credibility, not authority.
• You are strong at debugging and getting to root causes quickly.
• You focus on what works, not what looks good on paper.
• You use AI and agent-based tools to move faster, while staying accountable for the outcome.
• You communicate clearly and do not hide behind jargon.
• You take ownership and finish what you start.

What we can offer you

• Impact: Work on the problems that define whether we scale or not.
• Environment: Join a fast-moving fintech scaleup backed by top-tier VCs.
• Team: Work with high-caliber people with extensive building experience.
• Growth: Take on real responsibility with room to expand your scope.
• Compensation: Competitive salary and equity.

Join a team of fintech heroes! Performativ is building the infrastructure that investment advisors and financial institutions rely on. Working at Performativ means joining a fast-paced tech scaleup with intelligent people who are passionate about what they build. We are scaling fast, expectations are high, and the opportunity to make a real impact is immediate. We are funded by some of the leading VC funds in the world and are on a mission to establish ourselves as a European market leader in record time. You can read more about our product at performativ.com. We value passion. At Performativ, we are builders first. We care about people who take ownership, move fast, and do things properly. You will be trusted from day one to make your mark, drive your vision forward, and help solve the problems that matter most. Autonomous work is embedded in our culture, and we are committed to giving you the tools and support you need while recognizing the importance of flexibility.