Backend Software Engineer - APAC

Ikigai Digital Limited; Hong Kong; Hybrid; HKD 600,000 - 840,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Training budget

Remote-first culture

Industry-leading benefits

Job summary

Ikigai Digital is hiring a Backend Software Engineer for APAC. You will support clients' value delivery, mentor engineers, define practices, and design scalable solutions in a distributed, remote-first setup.

Expect to address performance, latency, security, and reliability, while working across Java/Kotlin/Python/JS and cloud-based architectures. Ideally you bring banking/financial services experience and a strong grasp of architecture disciplines, with clear communication to both technical and

Qualifications

• Built cloud-based applications.
• Banking/financial services experience preferred, but non-financial backgrounds considered.
• Good understanding of application, data, and infrastructure architecture disciplines.
• Ability to present ideas to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Knowledge of industry standards and controls for regulated environments.
• Transparent and collaborative mindset within a distributed organisation.
• Ability to set own daily goals in a startup/consultancy context.

Responsibilities

• Support clients in delivering value to their customers.
• Help define and refine engineering practices.
• Mentor engineers on the team.
• Design, build and maintain relevant solutions to support business objectives.
• Drive non-functional requirements like performance, latency, scalability, availability and security.
• Write readable, testable, maintainable, observable code.
• Manage architectural constraints: cost, quality, time, scope, technology, risk, compliance and resources.

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

Spring

Node.js

Cloud-based apps

Financial services

Architecture

Communication

Distributed teams

Autonomy

Job description

Backend Software Engineer - APAC at Ikigai Digital

Software Engineering @ Ikigai Digital

Who are we?
We are a boutique Financial Services consultancyhowever we reject the conventional "consultant-client" script, we are partners with a shared responsibility for outcomes. We put focus on cultural transformation within the client's business and put high emphasis on transparency when we disagree. Sustainable solutions and sustainable ways of working are non-negotiable for us. In summary we live by our values and our Ikigai ways with our clients.

What do we do?
At Ikigai, we specialise in helping clients build, launch, and run successful digital banks. At our core, we are passionate about solving the challenge of creating innovative and reliable financial services that benefit both clients and consumers. Our expertise is built on delivery, and we work side by side with our clients to help them build outstanding digital banks.

What would I be doing as a Backend Engineer at Ikigai?

• You’ll be supporting our clients in delivering value to their customers.
• You will help define and also refine our practices.
• You will act as a mentor, empowering the engineers on your team.
• We’d love for you to help us support business teams achieve their objectives by designing, building and maintaining relevant solutions.
• Help drive non-functional requirements (NFR’s) that may impact the overall customer experience. Things like;
  • Performance, latency, scalability, high availability, disaster recovery and security.
• Hopefully writing code that’s easily readable, testable, maintainable and observable.
• Managing architectural constraints such as, cost, quality, time, scope, technology, risk, compliance and resource.

What do we need from you already?

• You already have a great understanding of some of the following languages and frameworks that we use;
  • We tend to use; Java, Kotlin, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript.
  • Spring, Node.js.
• You’ve built cloud-based applications.
• We’d love for you to have banking and financial services experience but can consider you if you don’t.
• You have a good understanding of application, data, and infrastructure architecture disciplines.
• You know how to present and communicate your ideas with both technical and non-technical audiences.
• You’ll bring with you a great knowledge of industry standards and controls for delivering services in heavily regulated environments.
• You know how to and also enjoy working in a transparent and collaborative manner within a fully distributed organisation.
• We’re an early stage startup and a consultancy, so you’ll need to be capable of setting your own daily goals and executing on them without heavy direction and oversight.

So why Ikigai Digital?

We’re looking to grow our global team by bringing on board creative and proactive individuals to support our global growth and expanding clients in 2025 and beyond. It’s a truly exciting time for us right now, with plenty of opportunities to make a real impact within the business and future Digital Banks across the World, helping millions of people.

We’re a remote first company - this allows you to work from wherever you work best but for this role there will be some elements of travel required. Working remotely comes naturally to us at Ikigai Digital and we’re fully set up to help you succeed from the outset. Iki’ means 'to live', we believe that to ‘iki’ is more than a daily commute and precious time away from your family and community. Remote first working is one way in which we can increase our Ikigai. Removing the barriers of “in office” is not just beneficial for our employee’s satisfaction but also serves Ikigai as a company by creating greater efficiency, more geographically and culturally diverse teams, and heightened transparency.

There’s open ended career progression here and you’ll be given a $2,000 annual budget for personal training and attending conferences, alongside an industry leading benefits package.

You’ll be joining a startup - this means we operate very differently to larger businesses by trying to remove as much painful process as possible, allowing you to flourish and succeed - why would we hire you for your creativity and then proceed to hold you back. Ikigai trusts and empowers people, as opposed to command and control. You have an idea, let us know! You think something could be better, let us know!

Transparency and vulnerability are essential for effective collaboration yet also risky, so we promote a safe environment without embarrassing, shaming or punishing team members. Good news or bad, we call it as it is. We share so that there are no surprises and we can learn together. We believe this heightened level of transparency helps us work better together and also gives us a competitive advantage when our customers know that we are all in it together.

Even though we’re remote and we love it, we often meet up when it suits us, when it’s productive and of course when it’s fun! We find it ideal for celebrating our big wins, for team meetings and for social events AND don’t forget our yearly company-wide get-togethers in the sun too! In 2023 we went to Thailand, in 2024 we visited Portugal and in 2025 we’ve just been to Vietnam!

Find out more

Not everything fits into a job ad, so to find out more about Ikigai Digital, our plans, the job, the package, anything – message me, Craig Felston at [e-mail].