Software Engineer; Team Lead - Engine

Position: Staff Software Engineer (Team Lead) - Engine by Starling
Location: City Of London

Staff Software Engineer (Team Lead) - Engine by Starling

At Engine by Starling, we are on a mission to work with leading banks around the world to build rapid‑growth businesses on our technology. Engine is Starling’s SaaS business, the technology that powers Bank operations, and a year ago we split out as a separate company.

Engine’s technologists are at the heart of the business, working in a fast‑paced environment that focuses on building new products and maintaining a cutting‑edge fintech stack. The flat structure empowers decisions at all levels, with innovation and collaboration at the core of everything you do. Support is always available through an open culture that encourages teamwork across the business.

Our purpose is driven by five values:
Listen, Keep It Simple, Do The Right Thing, Own It, and Aim For Greatness.

Hybrid Working

We prefer you to be located within a commutable distance of our offices so we can interact and collaborate in person. A hybrid approach is the norm.

About Engineering at Engine by Starling

Engine by Starling engineers deliver new features across multiple clients worldwide. We’re looking for leaders who can inspire teams while driving engineering excellence.

As a Staff Engineer you will

• Coach, mentor, and grow a high‑performing team, ensuring well‑being and high‑impact solutions for Engine and its customers.
• Lead multiple complex projects from inception through to run.
• Use your system‑design expertise to help the team make smart architectural decisions and unblock challenges.
• Own technical challenges critical to business success.
• Identify and deliver innovative improvements to existing tooling, applications, and processes.
• Collaborate with clients, solution architects, product owners, and engineers to meet client goals.
• Build a broad understanding of global bank operations.
• Shape Engine’s future capabilities—including tooling, automation, and architecture.
• Lead by example in code contributions, setting a high bar for others.
• Champion a healthy engineering culture focused on continuous improvement, technical excellence, and customer focus.

As an Engineer you will

• Contribute to our award‑winning platform and internal tooling.
• Build new configurable features and products from scratch.
• Share knowledge and foster a learning culture.
• Own projects, working in small teams across the bank to deliver collaboratively.
• Aim for greatness, staying curious and inquisitive.
• Be part of a scaling team that changes banking for good.

Requirements

We value aptitude and attitude over specific experience. Most of our code is in Java, focused on clean coding, simple solutions, automated testing, and continuous deployment. We look for people who enjoy building the tooling engineers use daily.

• Proven experience leading and mentoring high‑performing engineering teams.
• Experience delivering change to critical systems in a distributed environment.
• A highly proficient developer who maintains high standards for technical and coding excellence.
• Good understanding of Dev Ops practices.
• Experience delivering complex outcomes across multiple domains and teams.
• Collaborative experience with cross‑functional stakeholders.
• Coaching and mentoring team members to upskill and grow.
• Leading technical delivery on large‑scale projects to successful completion.

Backend Tech Stack

• Java
• AWS & GCP – we are cloud‑native.
• Microservices architecture.
• Kubernetes (EKS).
• Team City for CI/CD (multiple production releases per day).
• Terraform and Grafana.

Interview Process

• Initial interview with a Staff or Principal Engineer – 45 minutes.
• Take‑home technical test discussed in the next interview.
• Technical & Leadership interview with several Engineers – 1.5 hours.
• Final interview with our CTO / deputy CTO / Engineering Director / Principal Engineer – 45 minutes.

Benefits

• 33 days holiday (plus public holidays).
• Extra birthday holiday.
• Annual leave increase with service length; option to buy/sell up to five extra days.
• 16 hours paid volunteering time a year.
• Salary sacrifice, company‑enhanced pension scheme.
• Life insurance at 4x salary & group income protection.
• Private medical insurance with mental health and cancer care support.
• Family‑friendly policies.
• Incentives via refer‑a‑friend scheme.
• Perkbox membership (retail discounts, wellness platform).
• Cycle‑to‑Work, salary‑sacrifice gym partnerships, and electric vehicle leasing.

About Us

Engine by Starling is on a mission to radically reshape banking. We bring together people from all backgrounds who love solving problems together. We are an equal‑opportunity employer and actively promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Engine by Starling and Starling Bank will collect your personal data for recruiting purposes in accordance with our Privacy Notice.

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