Engineering Lead - Recommend Team (Backend Focused - Hands on)

Posted 5 Hours Ago
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London, Greater London, England, GBR
Hybrid
Entry 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 and mentor backend-focused software engineers while owning the technical strategy, architecture, and delivery of Wise’s referral and recommendation platform. Partner with Product, Marketing, Design, Analytics, and other engineering teams to build scalable, resilient, customer-facing systems and flexible incentive campaigns. Support hiring, team development, roadmap planning, technical quality, on-call operations, and continuous improvement.
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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 looking for an experienced Engineering Lead to join our Recommend team in the London office.

At the Recommend team, we aim to grow the Wise customer base through Referrals and Word of Mouth.  We make it easy and rewarding for customers to recommend Wise to their friends, family and connections, through both our referral programme and experiences that encourage organic recommendations. 

From building referral platforms, to creating a smooth onboarding experience for referred customers and building reward mechanisms, we own the whole journey until the first international money needs are met. Our team is dedicated to building the best recommendation journey and diverse reward mechanisms to solve customers' first international money needs in a way that’s clear, easy and delightful. Our team is diverse and is made of software engineers (frontend, backend, mobile), data analysts, and designers and more who collaborate on a daily basis to continuously improve customer experience with recommendation journeys at Wise.

As an Engineering Lead you will:

  • Lead, coach, and mentor a team of driven engineers, supporting their growth and empowering them to do their best work.

  • Work closely with the Product Manager and your team to shape the roadmap, set the technical and product vision around three levers: reach customers at the right moment, make it easy for them to advocate, and ensure customers feel recognised and rewarded for recommending Wise 

  • Own the technical strategy and delivery of our referral and word of mouth platform, including being hands on at times. Architect for scale and resilience the core technology that empowers any team to launch flexible, incentivised campaigns, and guides every referred customer to their first successful task at Wise.

  • Enable your team to succeed by ensuring they are well-resourced, can plan effectively, and are set up to commit to and deliver on their roadmap.

  • Stay and remain very close to the tech and product - setting high standards for quality, and leading by example.

  • Own the health and productivity of the engineers in your team, fostering a culture of collaboration, ownership, and continuous improvement.

  • Own the hiring, growth and development of your team and its impact at Wise.

  • Work with Marketing, Regional and other product teams across Wise, so as to offer new incentives and campaigns adapted to different use-cases and markets.

  • Keep an overview of the wider Scalable Growth space and think about engineering as a whole, including how other teams can build on our platform and tooling.

  • Understand the team's systems deeply enough to be hands-on when needed, and join the team's on-call rotation for our critical services.

What do you need?

  • You are proactive and opinionated. You demonstrate that you tackle challenges head-first; you take the lead and are comfortable with taking action outside your strict remit if needed in order to ensure that the goal is achieved. You have strong opinions held loosely and with proven experience in transforming teams’ ways-of-working.

  • You have proven experience in leading and mentoring software engineers. You enjoy helping others grow and succeed.

  • You have a strong product and customer mindset and experience building customer facing products. You demonstrate that you are a peer to your Product manager: partnering in Product Discovery, challenging your peer, striving for urgency to find quick ways to validate while building for the long-term once value is proven. You are comfortable with wearing multiple hats when needed including Product, Design and Analytics. 

  • You possess strong technical expertise or background in OOP Languages (Java or similar) and modern technology stacks. You are comfortable with getting hands-on, diving in code to assist the team and show the way.

  • You have experience working with other functions like Frontend and/or Mobile engineers

  • You have experience working with and building distributed, high scalability systems, event-driven, asynchronous and microservice architectures. You have strong experience in decoupling systems without disrupting business continuity.

  • You have experience in domains of promoting virality amongst users and complex interactions amongst them (e.g. referrer - referee, social media sharing, seller - buyer, driver - passenger) etc.

  • You're a great communicator who can articulate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

  • You thrive in a collaborative environment and have experience working effectively with cross-functional peers like data science, designers, product managers, and analysts.

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

  • Proven experience leading and mentoring software engineers
  • Experience building customer-facing products with a strong product and customer mindset
  • Strong technical expertise in object-oriented programming languages, such as Java, and modern technology stacks
  • Experience working with frontend and/or mobile engineers
  • Experience building distributed, highly scalable systems
  • Experience with event-driven, asynchronous, and microservice architectures
  • Experience decoupling systems without disrupting business continuity
  • Experience with viral or referral-oriented products and complex user interactions
  • Strong communication skills for explaining complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences
  • Experience collaborating with data scientists, designers, product managers, and analysts
  • Ability to work hands-on with code and participate in an on-call rotation

What the Team is Saying

Wise Compensation & Benefits Highlights

  • Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off is considered generous, with substantial annual PTO, sick leave, and a paid sabbatical after four years highlighted. Feedback suggests these policies meaningfully support rest and flexibility.
  • Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as comprehensive, including medical, dental, vision, and options like HSA contributions and a zero-deductible plan in some cases. Feedback suggests the healthcare offering is viewed favorably overall.
  • Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity grants (RSUs or stock options) are broadly available and positioned as a core part of total compensation. Feedback suggests some employees find the equity a meaningful component of their overall package.

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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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