Engineering Lead - APAC Expansion (Korea)

Posted 2 Days Ago
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Seoul, KOR
Hybrid
Senior level
Fintech • Mobile • Payments • Software • Financial Services
Wise is one of the fastest growing fintechs in the world and we’re on a mission to make money without borders a new norm
The Role
Lead the Seoul engineering team as the senior on-the-ground engineer: define technical roadmap, ensure reliability/security/observability, manage and grow engineers, represent Wise to regulators, support product and delivery, handle incident management and operational SLAs.
Summary Generated by Built In
Company Description

Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money.
Min fees. Max ease. Full speed.

Whether people and businesses are sending money to another country, spending abroad, or making and receiving international payments, Wise is on a mission to make their lives easier and save them money.

As part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money.
For everyone, everywhere.

More about our mission and what we offer.

Job Description

We are opening a new office in Seoul to support our Asia-Pacific teams and regional expansion plans. As an Engineering Lead in South Korea, you will have the unique opportunity to build beautifully simple experiences that guide our customers through the Wise ecosystem, helping them live, travel, and work without borders.

How you’ll be contributing to our team:

  • Seoul Office Seed: As the most senior engineer on the ground, you will act as a foundational 'seed' for the Seoul office, bridging the gap between local operations and APAC regional teams, and fostering a collaborative culture from day one.

  • Being the technical representative of Wise to the regulators: As the most senior technical person in the Seoul Office, you will be representing Wise as a Key Management Personnel and be the main point of contact to regulators and auditors around IT Org and IT Sec. 

  • Product Ownership: You will own the technical roadmap for your team, ensuring it addresses critical technical debt, reliability, security, and scalability concerns.

  • Technical Excellence: You will actively contribute  to your team's delivery, supporting day-to-day execution while maintaining a high standard for product quality and customer experience.

  • People Leadership: You will directly manage the engineers of your team in the Seoul office, ensuring high effectiveness and performance from team members.

  • Domain Expertise: You will partner with product and design functions to develop and execute a product roadmap that solves real customer problems with measurable impact.

  • System Reliability: You are accountable for the availability and security of the systems you build, ensuring they have appropriate support, SLAs, on-call rosters, and documentation.

  • Incident Management: You will actively help resolve existing incidents within your area of ownership and ensure every incident is properly owned.

Qualifications

What does it take?:

  • Professional fluency in written and spoken English and Korean is required to manage technical documentation and engaging with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Collaborative Communicator: You are a clear communicator who can articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical partners.
  • Lead Mindset: You have experience leading or significantly contributing to technical projects and are comfortable managing the development and deployment lifecycle

  • Technical Depth: You are an expert in your technical discipline with a solid understanding of distributed systems and modern frameworks.

  • Product-Minded: You approach work with a strong passion for user experience and make data-driven decisions to fix customer pain points

  • Engineering Best Practices: You ensure your team follows defined standards for observability, security, and infrastructure usage.

What you can expect as an Engineering Lead at Wise:

  • Scope: You will be responsible for defining and building the Korea engineering team structure from the ground up and developing a high-performing team, while ensuring it is correctly sized and integrated with our APAC expansion goals.

  • Team Growth: You are responsible for managing the performance, well-being, and career growth of the engineers you lead through regular feedback and coaching.

  • Culture of Ownership: You will foster a culture of inclusivity, ownership, and accountability where every engineer is empowered to take responsibility for their work.

  • Hiring & Onboarding: You will be a key part of the interview panel, following interviewing best practices, and responsible for the successful onboarding of new hires.

  • Organisational Execution: You will ensure company-wide processes—such as compensation reviews and training—are executed effectively and that your team is correctly sized for its goals.

 

To get the best view of what we expect at all levels of our engineering team, you can take a look at our Engineering Career Map.

Additional Information

For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders  — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.
Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

Keep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Skills Required

  • Professional fluency in written and spoken English and Korean
  • Experience leading technical projects and managing development and deployment lifecycles
  • People leadership experience: managing performance, coaching, hiring, and onboarding engineers
  • Expert knowledge in technical discipline with solid understanding of distributed systems and modern frameworks
  • Strong understanding and practice of observability, security, and infrastructure best practices
  • Ability to act as technical representative to regulators and auditors for IT and IT security
  • Clear communication skills to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
  • Product-minded, data-driven approach to solving customer problems

What the Team is Saying

Surendra
Smrithi
Pavan
Jennifer
Lindsay
Lauren

Wise Compensation & Benefits Highlights

  • Equity Value & Accessibility Equity is granted to all employees via time‑based RSUs/stock awards, aligning staff with company performance. This broad accessibility makes ownership a core part of total rewards.
  • Leave & Time Off Breadth Policies include a global minimum of 33–36 paid days off and a paid six‑week sabbatical after four years with a cash stipend. The sabbatical is positioned as a standard milestone benefit in addition to annual leave.
  • Parental & Family Support Wise commits to a minimum of 18 weeks’ fully paid parental leave for birth or adoption across many offices. Eligibility rules and tenure may apply by location while maintaining a companywide minimum standard.

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The Company
9,000 Employees
Year Founded: 2011

What We Do

Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world's money. With Wise Account and Wise Business, people and businesses can hold 40 currencies, move money between countries and spend money abroad. Large companies and banks use Wise technology too; an entirely new network for the world's money. Launched in 2011, Wise is one of the world’s fastest growing, profitable tech companies. In fiscal year 2025, Wise supported around 15.6 million people and businesses, processing over $185 billion in cross-border transactions and saving customers around $2.6 billion.

Why Work With Us

We’re truly global in who we are, how we work, and how we build. Everything we do is centred around creating a world of money that’s fast, easy, fair. And open to all. Everyone who works here owns a piece of Wise, from the work they do, to the stock they hold.

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Wise Offices

Hybrid Workspace

Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.

We expect new joiners in the office most days to build connections and learn from colleagues for their first six months. After that, most Wisers split their working week between the office and home, typically coming in at least 12 times a month.

Typical time on-site: Flexible
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