Staff Software Engineer (Team Lead) - Engine by Starling

Starling; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

33 days holiday including public holidays

Extra day off for your birthday

Private Medical Insurance

Volunteering time

Perkbox membership

Job summary

Starling in Southampton seeks a Staff Engineer who will coach and mentor a high-performing team while leading complex projects. The role focuses on innovation within the fintech sector and offers an engaging work culture.

The ideal candidate will have strong Java skills and experience with cloud technologies like AWS and Kubernetes. Employees enjoy flexible working conditions, generous leave policies, and a supportive environment fostering personal and professional growth.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading and mentoring high-performing engineering teams.
• Delivering change in a distributed environment.
• Highly proficient developer with high standards for technical excellence.

Responsibilities

• Coach and mentor a high-performing team.
• Lead complex projects from inception to run.
• Take ownership of technical challenges critical to success.

Skills

Leadership and mentoring

Technical coding excellence

DevOps practices

Collaborative problem-solving

Tools

Java

AWS

GCP

Kubernetes

Terraform

TeamCity

Job description

Overview

At Engine by Starling, we are on a mission to find and work with leading banks all around the world who have the ambition to build rapid growth businesses, on our technology.

Engine is Starling's software‑as‑a‑service (SaaS) business, the technology that was built to power Starling Bank, and a year ago we split out as a separate business.

Starling has seen exceptional growth and success, and a large part of that is down to the fact that we have built our own modern technology from the ground up. The Engine technology platform is now available to banks and financial institutions all around the world, enabling them to benefit from the innovative digital features, and efficient back‑office processes that has helped achieve Starling's success.

Our technologists are at the very heart of Engine and enjoy working in a fast‑paced environment that is all about building things, creating new stuff, and disruptive technology that keeps us on the cutting edge of fintech. We operate a flat structure to empower you to make decisions regardless of what your primary responsibilities may be, innovation and collaboration will be at the core of everything you do. Help is never far away in our open culture, you will find support in your team and from across the business, we are in this together!

The way to thrive and shine within Engine is to be a self‑driven individual and be able to take full ownership of everything around you: From building things, designing, and discovering to sharing knowledge with your colleagues and making sure all processes are efficient and productive to deliver the best possible results for our customers. Our purpose is underpinned by five values: Listen, Keep It Simple, Do The Right Thing, Own It, and Aim For Greatness.

Hybrid Working

We have a Hybrid approach to working here at Engine - our preference is that you're located within a commutable distance of our offices so that we're able to interact and collaborate in person.

About Engineering at Engine by Starling

Engine is our software platform that powers banks worldwide. Our engineers build the core platform and tooling that other teams use.

Staff Engineer Responsibilities

• Coach, mentor, and grow a high‑performing team, ensuring their well‑being as they work on high‑impact solutions that bring value to Engine and our customers.
• Lead multiple complex projects from inception through to run.
• Get hands‑on when needed, using strong system design skills to help the team make smart architectural decisions and unblock complex challenges.
• Take ownership of technical challenges critical to the success of the business.
• Identify where existing tooling, applications, or processes can be enhanced and deliver innovative change.
• Collaborate with clients, solution architects, product owners, and other engineers to help meet the client goals.
• Obtain a wide and varied understanding of how banks operate around the world.
• Shape the future capabilities of Engine, including our approach, tooling, automation and architecture.
• Lead by example in your contributions to the codebase, setting a high bar for others to aim for.
• Champion a healthy engineering culture built on continuous improvement, technical excellence, and a focus on the customer.

Engineer Responsibilities

• Contribute to our award‑winning platform and internal tooling.
• Build new features and products from scratch in a configurable way.
• Share your knowledge with those around you, contributing to our learning culture.
• Own your projects, working in small teams across the bank to collaboratively deliver.
• Aim for greatness in everything you do, staying curious and inquisitive.
• Be part of a scaling team and organisation as we change banking for good.

Requirements

We are open‑minded when it comes to hiring and we care more about aptitude and attitude than specific experience or qualifications.

As a Staff Engineer you will bring the below experience or knowledge:

• Proven experience leading and mentoring high‑performing engineering teams.
• Delivering change to critical systems in a distributed environment.
• Be a highly proficient developer, maintaining a high standard for technical and coding excellence through your own work.
• Good understanding of DevOps practices.
• Delivering complex outcomes across multiple domains and teams.
• Working cross‑functionally with technologists from other specialties, and non‑technical stakeholders across the business.
• Coaching and mentoring members of a team to upskill and develop them in their career.
• Leading the technical delivery on large‑scale projects to successful completion.

Backend Tech Stack

• Java, which makes up the majority of our backend codebase.
• AWS & GCP – we are cloud‑native.
• Microservice based architecture.
• Kubernetes (EKS).
• TeamCity for CI / CD (with multiple production releases per day).
• Terraform and Grafana.

Benefits

• 33 days holiday (including public holidays, which you can take when it works best for you).
• An extra day's holiday for your birthday.
• Annual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off.
• 16 hours paid volunteering time a year.
• Salary sacrifice, company enhanced pension scheme.
• Life insurance at 4x your salary & group income protection.
• Private Medical Insurance with VitalityHealth including mental health support and cancer care.
• Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton.
• Generous family‑friendly policies.
• Incentives refer a friend scheme.
• Perkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perks.
• Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work, Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships and Electric Vehicle (EV) leasing.

About Us

We may have come from different backgrounds and experiences, but we work together to solve problems. Our team is diverse, inclusive, and highly collaborative.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Engine by Starling is an equal opportunity employer, and we're proud to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment at Engine by Starling are considered without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

When you provide us with this information, you are doing so at your own consent, with full knowledge that we will process this personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice. By submitting your application, you agree that Engine by Starling and Starling Bank will collect your personal data for recruiting and related purposes. Our Privacy Notice explains what personal information we will process, where we will process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal data, and the rights you can exercise over our use of your personal data.