iwoca seeks a Staff Backend Engineer to lead the technical design and development of our financial data systems, beginning with a new credit card ledger. You will combine deep technical expertise with business context to help launch a credit card product and scale our core financial infrastructure.

What You'll Do

Lead the technical design and development of iwoca’s financial data systems, starting with a new credit card ledger.
Scale a new ledger system to process hundreds of thousands of daily transactions with precision and resilience.
Extend and improve the systems that power real-time payments, ensuring reliability and scalability.
Build and maintain services that provide Finance, Accounting, and Capital Markets teams with accurate, timely data.
Guide engineers through complex design decisions, mentor team members, and set technical standards.

What We're Looking For

Experience designing and building scalable back-end systems for payments or financial ledgers.
Proficiency in Python, writing clean, efficient, and well-tested code.
Experience designing data models for payments systems, ensuring accuracy, scalability, and maintainability, ideally using PostgreSQL.
Experience architecting highly available systems that process 10,000+ transactions per day.
Experience leading projects end to end, from scoping and design through to production.
Experience mentoring engineers and setting technical standards.
Clear, concise written and verbal communication, focusing on outcomes and impact.
Numerical or technical background, ideally with a degree in maths, physics, computer science, engineering, or a related field.

Nice to Have

Experience with Django.
Experience with infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD pipelines.
Experience with Rust.

Technical Stack

Python
PostgreSQL
Django
Rust

Team & Environment

You'll join a team of six engineers and work closely with a Tech Lead and Product Manager, using Agile methods.

Benefits & Compensation

Compensation: £100,000 - £140,000
Flexible working hours
Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership
A private GP service for you, your partner, and your dependents
25 days’ holiday per year, an extra day off for your birthday, the option to buy or sell an additional five days of annual leave, and unlimited unpaid leave
A one-month, fully paid sabbatical after four years
Instant access to external counselling and therapy sessions
3% pension contributions on total earnings
An employee equity incentive scheme
Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme
Electric car scheme and cycle to work scheme
Two company retreats a year
A learning and development budget for everyone
Company-wide talks with internal and external speakers
Access to learning platforms like Treehouse