Senior Staff Engineer Job Edinburgh area,Scotland UK,Software Development

Requirements

A track record as a tech lead, owning the outcome of a squad's delivery and the standards it works to
A track record of leading from the front line: writing design docs, reviewing PRs and ADRs, and solving problems hands-on while setting direction
The ability to balance hands-on work on the biggest technical challenges with coaching more junior engineers, holding the whole team to a consistent quality and speed bar
Experience designing a team's ways of working from scratch, balancing speed, quality and resilience
Experience owning cross-team sequencing and dependencies, and diagnosing throughput problems rather than just reporting them
Comfort cutting through real ambiguity to set technical direction, and driving technical blockers to resolution rather than just visibility
(Desirable) Experience with payments systems
(Desirable) Experience improving cost-to-process or processing efficiency in a high-volume service
(Desirable) Experience taking a service from a basic first version to something built for scale

What the job involves

We're hiring a Senior Staff Engineer for our brand new Payments squad, part of Saldo, our Billing and Payments Service
Payments at tem works today, but it's a basic service
We're growing fast, and it needs to be built for the scale we're moving towards
You'll be the first tech lead in a squad that already has a senior engineer and three junior engineers, and you'll own the outcome of the squad's delivery and the standards it works to
This is a hands‑on role
You'll write design docs, review code, solve the hardest problems alongside the team, and set the technical direction for payments
The number you'll move is the cost of processing every pound that flows through tem
Your job is to bring it down, and keep it low as we scale
In your first 12 months, you might:
Set the architecture direction that takes payments from a functional service to one built for growth
Define how the squad works, including the balance between speed, quality and resilience that payments demands
Lift the quality and speed bar for the whole squad, senior and junior engineers alike
Drive the technical blockers to delivery to resolution, so the squad's work reaches the people who depend on it
Make payment accuracy and processing efficiency the levers that bring cost-to-process down
You'll report into the Service Manager for Saldo
Own the outcome:
Take responsibility for the squad's delivery and the standards it works to, so the team ships work we're proud of
Lead from the front line:
Write specs and design docs, give feedback on ADRs, review pull requests, and solve problems directly through code or workflows
Set the payments architecture direction:
Turn a genuinely ambiguous area into a clear technical strategy, without waiting for someone else to define the problem
Cut the cost to process:
Own payment accuracy and processing efficiency as the direct levers on cost-to-process
Design how the squad works:
Define the squad's operating model and set the pace, rather than waiting for a playbook
Own the big picture:
Manage sequencing and dependencies, diagnose why throughput isn't improving, and make sure the squad's work is visible to stakeholders
Build a high‑performance team:
Coach junior engineers while working the hardest problems alongside our senior engineer, and define what good looks like by working the details with the team
Partner on people decisions:
Flag promotion and hiring gaps to your manager, who keeps line management and performance conversations. Decisions on people are made jointly