Tech Lead - Onboarding & KYC Engineering

Watu; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Watu is seeking a Tech Lead for Onboarding Engineering to own architecture, drive quality, and govern partner integrations. You will guide Java/backend and frontend paths, oversee KYC/anti‑fraud integrations, and mentor a squad of 4–6 engineers, including a QA specialist.

You will partner with Product to define what and when to build, while owning How and When for your domain. This role emphasizes practical leadership and hands‑on technical execution in a fast‑growing fintech environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience with technical authority in a significant area.
• Strong backend fundamentals: distributed systems, event-driven architecture, API design, data modeling.
• Experience reviewing code across full stack and delivering with Product Owners.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical architecture for the squad's domain, including API contracts and data models (ABD).
• Enforce engineering standards at the squad level: PR reviews, CI/CD, OpenAPI docs, runbooks, secrets mgmt.
• Lead sprint planning with Product Owner and unblock engineers to ensure timely delivery.
• Review and approve PRs, maintain the Definition of Done, and sign off on releases.

Skills

7+ years engineering

Backend architecture

API design

Agile/Scrum

Communication

AI/LLM tooling

Tools

Java backend

OpenAPI/Swagger

Kafka

Job description

Watu is seeking a Tech Lead for Onboarding Engineering to own architecture, drive quality, and govern partner integrations. You will guide Java/backend and frontend paths, oversee KYC/anti‑fraud integrations, and mentor a squad of 4–6 engineers, including a QA specialist.

You will partner with Product to define what and when to build, while owning How and When for your domain. This role emphasizes practical leadership and hands‑on technical execution in a fast‑growing fintech environment.