Hybrid in London / Remote within the UK
The role
This is an opportunity to build a critical, new payments platform. As a Staff Back-end Engineer, you’ll own the entire lifecycle, from defining the long-term architectural vision to writing the code that brings it to life. You’ll manage, mentor, and grow a small group of talented engineers, and improve engineering standards across the wider organisation.
The company
Small businesses move fast. Opportunities often don’t wait, and cash flow pressures can appear overnight. To keep going, and growing, SMEs need finance that’s as flexible and responsive as they are.
That's why we built iwoca. Our smart technology, data science and five-star customer service ensures business owners can act with the speed, confidence and control they need, exactly when it's needed.
We’ve already cleared the way for 100,000 businesses with more than £4 billion in funding. Our passionate team is driven to help even more SMEs succeed, through access to better finance and other services that make running a business easier. Our ultimate mission is to support one million SMEs in their defining moments, creating lasting impact for the communities and economies they drive.
The team
The Credit Cards team is building iwoca’s newest product for small and medium-sized businesses, giving them a fast, flexible way to manage cash flow alongside our existing loans. We're aiming to build a market-leading product, as the credit card is a core part of our long-term growth strategy. We’re responsible for the systems, processes, and product features that will make this possible – from platform architecture and credit risk to user experience and servicing.
The projects
You’ll work on engineering projects that give you scope to own architecture, solve complex problems, and influence how the team grows, while delivering features that matter to customers.
Service Architecture: Design the architecture and service boundaries of our payments platform to make it scalable, robust, and flexible.
Authorisation Service: Design and build the service that responds to authorisation requests when customers use their card, ensuring >99.9% successful response rate, <0.5s latency, and capacity to handle 100,000 transactions per day.
Reward calculation: Develop a real-time rewards platform that supports a diverse range of benefits - such as cashback, points, and travel perks - and displays them to customers instantly as they spend.
The requirements
Essential:
Experience designing and operating highly available, low-latency payments systems (10,000+ transactions per day).
Proficiency in an object-oriented programming language, ideally Python.
Experience designing data models for payments systems, ensuring accuracy, scalability, and maintainability, ideally using PostgreSQL.
Experience building and integrating APIs and distributed systems, including microservices.
Experience mentoring engineers and setting technical standards.
Clear, concise written and verbal communication, prioritising the most relevant information and focusing on outcomes and impact.
Bonus:
Technical knowledge of card network transaction flows.
Experience with financial ledgers.
Experience with Django.
A strong numerical or technical background, ideally with a degree in maths, physics, computer science, engineering, or a related field.
The salary
We expect to pay from £100,000 - £140,000 for this role. But, we’re open-minded, so definitely include your salary goals with your application. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates, and run quarterly salary and performance reviews.
The culture
At iwoca, we prioritise a culture of learning, growth, and support, and invest in the professional development of our team members. We value diversity in thought and skill, and encourage you to explore new areas of interest to help us improve our products and services.
The offices
We put a lot of effort into making iwoca a brilliant place to work:
Offices in London, Leeds, Berlin, and Frankfurt with plenty of drinks and snacks.
Events and clubs, like bingo, comedy nights, yoga classes, football, etc.
The benefits
Flexible working.
Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.
A private GP service (separate from Vitality) for you, your partner, and your dependents.
25 days’ holiday, 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 emotional and mental health support.
3% Pension contributions and share options.
Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.
Cycle-to-work scheme and electric car scheme.
Two company retreats a year, we’ve been to France, Italy, Spain, and further afield.
And to make sure we all keep learning, we offer:
A learning and development budget for everyone.
Company-wide talks with internal and external speakers.
Access to learning platforms like Treehouse.
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What We Do
iwoca was founded to expand possibilities for small businesses. At iwoca, we believe finance should feel like a superpower, not a headache. That’s why our founders, Chris and James, decided to create a solution custom-built for small businesses. One that strips out the hassle, gets to know what each business needs, and looks for opportunities rather than problems. One that provides access to finance where and when your business needs it. Our partner integrations and our Lending API mean we can provide access to finance where and when small businesses need it. Our award winning credit risk engine help us make faster, more accurate credit decisions built around the performance of the business. We are proud to be NACFB Lender of the year, Xero Financial Services App of the year and, most recently, winner of the £10m Banking Competition Remedies grant. Since 2012, we’ve made funding available to over 50,000 businesses, from cafés to car dealers, salons to solicitors. But we’ve only just started. Our mission is to fund one million small businesses.
