Staff Engineer

Qurated; Manchester; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Qurated is seeking a VP Software Engineer (Staff Engineer) to act as a senior technical leader across multiple engineering domains within a leading Tier 1 global bank's UK engineering function. You will partner with principal engineers, managers, and architects to identify opportunities, raise engineering standards, and drive technical excellence across the wider organisation.

This role provides the opportunity to move across functions, solving difficult problems, improving delivery practices,

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience in complex enterprise environments.
• Strong understanding of domain-driven design and cell-based architectures.
• Experience with containerised platforms and AWS.
• Broad experience across the full software development lifecycle and multiple tech stacks.

Responsibilities

• Act as a senior technical leader across multiple engineering teams and domains.
• Build relationships with engineering leaders and stakeholders to drive technical excellence.
• Identify best practices and architectural patterns and promote their adoption across the organisation.
• Review technical solutions, provide guidance, and challenge where needed.
• Own complex technical and organisational problems and drive them to resolution.
• Support teams in overcoming delivery, architecture, scalability, or platform challenges.
• Raise engineering standards and drive consistency in processes and metrics.

Skills

Software engineering leadership

Domain-driven design

Cell-based architectures

Architectural patterns

Delivery optimization

Cross-team collaboration

Multistack proficiency

Tools

AWS

Job description

A leading Tier 1 global bank is undertaking a significant engineering transformation, focused on raising engineering standards, improving technology delivery, and continuing the growth of its UK engineering function. As part of this journey, we are seeking a highly experienced VP Software Engineer (Staff Engineer) to operate as a senior technical leader across multiple engineering domains.

The Role

Reporting directly to a senior engineering leader, you will operate independently across a portfolio of engineering teams and labs, acting as a trusted technical advisor, problem solver, and hands‑on engineering leader.

You will partner with Principal Engineers, Engineering Managers, Architects, and senior stakeholders to identify opportunities, improve engineering effectiveness, and drive technical excellence across the wider organisation.

Unlike traditional Staff Engineer positions tied to a single team, this role provides the opportunity to move across multiple engineering functions, helping teams solve difficult problems, improve delivery practices, and adopt consistent engineering standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a senior technical leader across multiple engineering teams and domains.
• Build strong relationships with Principal Engineers and engineering leaders across the organisation.
• Identify best practices, architectural patterns, and engineering approaches being used across teams and help drive their adoption.
• Review technical solutions, provide guidance, and offer constructive challenge where required.
• Take ownership of complex technical and organisational problems and help drive them to resolution.
• Support engineering teams in overcoming delivery, architecture, scalability, or platform challenges.
• Drive consistency in engineering processes, standards, and ways of working across teams.
• Influence improvements in areas such as estimation, software delivery, engineering metrics, quality, and operational excellence.
• Raise the technical bar through coaching, mentoring, and technical leadership.
• Provide pragmatic advice while balancing business priorities, risk, and technical excellence.
• Escalate concerns and challenge decisions when necessary while maintaining strong stakeholder relationships.

What We're Looking For

Technical Experience

• 10+ years of software engineering experience in complex enterprise environments.
• Strong understanding of modern software architecture patterns, including domain-driven and cell-based architectures.
• Experience working with:
• Containerised platforms (cloud and on‑premises)
• AWS
• Automated testing practices
• Platform and application security
• Broad technical expertise across the full software development lifecycle rather than a narrow specialism.
• Comfortable operating across multiple technology stacks and programming languages.
• Ability to quickly understand unfamiliar systems and provide credible technical leadership.

Background

• Experience from large-scale, regulated or highly structured organisations is strongly preferred.
• Financial services experience is beneficial but not essential.
• Previous Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Lead Engineer, or similar experience is advantageous.
• Exceptional senior engineers ready to step into a Staff-level role will also be considered.