Staff Software Engineer, New Products

Airwallex; Greater London; On-site; GBP 95,796 - 177,907; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex, based in Greater London, is seeking a skilled software engineer to lead innovation in fintech AI, driving high-level strategic visions into market-ready products. Candidates should have extensive experience in backend systems and the ability to communicate technical trade-offs effectively.

This role offers a competitive compensation range of £95,796 - £177,907. Join us in a dynamic environment where you can have a significant impact on our financial platform's architecture and operations.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, preferably in fast-paced environments.
• Ability to align engineering with user experience and business impact.
• Experience in undefined spaces, mapping technical specs independently.
• Focus on delivering outcomes despite technical hurdles.
• Proven experience in high-performance backend systems and frontend.

Responsibilities

• Translate strategic visions into market-ready software.
• Lead the evaluation of emerging AI technologies for financial platforms.
• Make architectural decisions balancing speed and maintainability.
• Deliver complete solutions across the software stack.
• Build technical foundations for incubation projects within Airwallex.

Skills

10+ years of software engineering experience

Strong Product Sense

Comfort with Ambiguity

Pragmatic Problem Solver

Deep Backend & Full-Stack Capabilities

Clear Communication

Job description

What You’ll Do

• Collaborate on 0-to-1 Products: Partner with the CEO and global leadership to translate high-level strategic visions and AI capabilities into functional, market-ready software.
• Drive Fintech AI Innovation: Lead the technical evaluation and implementation of emerging AI technologies and intelligent workflows, figuring out how they can best serve our financial platform.
• Balance Speed with Maintainability: Make pragmatic architectural decisions. You know when to build a quick prototype to validate an idea, and how to structure it so that it can be successfully handed off and scaled if it succeeds.
• Own the Full Stack: While steering backend architecture and systems design, you are comfortable working across the entire stack to deliver complete solutions, from data models to user interfaces.
• Bootstrap Future Teams: Help lay the technical foundation for successful incubation projects, ensuring a smooth transition as they grow into standalone product lines within Airwallex.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a background that includes operating at a Staff level or leading technical direction in fast‑paced, greenfield environments.
• Strong Product Sense: You look at engineering through a commercial lens. You care about user experience, business impact, and why a product is being built, not just the code itself.
• Comfort with Ambiguity: You enjoy working in spaces where requirements aren't fully defined yet, and you can independently map out technical specs from high-level direction.
• Pragmatic Problem Solver: You are resourceful, self‑directed, and focused on delivering outcomes, finding efficient ways to work through technical or institutional blockers.
• Deep Backend & Full-Stack Capabilities: Solid fundamentals in high‑performance backend ecosystems alongside the practical ability to build frontend interfaces when moving quickly.
• Clear Communication: Ability to discuss deep technical trade-offs with core infrastructure teams and present clear, simplified product outcomes to executive stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building software that leverages Generative AI, LLMs, or automated agent workflows.
• Experience in fintech, payments, multi‑currency ledgering, or regulated financial systems.
• Prior experience as a founding engineer, tech lead of an R&D team, or technical co‑founder.

Equal Opportunity

Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

Compensation Range: £95,796 - £177,907