Role Overview
We’re hiring a Tech Lead for our Funnel Platform Team. You will lead the evolution of the shared code, frameworks, and integrations that power our services, build and improve business-critical systems, and shape the technical vision. Your customers are other iwoca engineers.
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.
The Team
The Platform team owns approximately 10 shared services that the rest of iwoca engineering builds on top of - including the frameworks and integrations with external data providers (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, Companies House etc) that underpin our credit decisions. Funnel Platform is code and framework focused - building and stewarding the shared services that the rest of engineering depends on.
The Role
The Tech Lead role combines individual contribution, line management, and ownership of the platform roadmap. You will lead a team of developers focused on the shared services and frameworks that other iwoca engineering teams build on, driving technical strategy and translating our long-term vision into robust, maintainable systems. Your mission is "Making Change Easy" for the engineering teams that depend on you.
Responsibilities: * Act as a hands-on contributor and lead by example in quality, testing, and performance. * Drive the technical strategy and execution for the Platform team, translating vision into well-designed, robust, and maintainable systems. * Set direction without a PM - spot the problems worth solving, back them with data, and drive them to delivery. * Lead the development of shared frameworks and services that other engineering teams contribute to and build on. * Collaborate with stakeholders in the commercial funnel teams to build a shared roadmap. * Own the health of the shared services other teams depend on - spotting emerging issues, reviewing contributions from consuming teams. * Shape architectural improvements to the shared services over time - measured on developer experience, service health, and reliability, not feature throughput. * Manage and mentor engineers, taking responsibility for their performance, coaching, and career development. * Define and champion engineering best practices within your team and across the wider engineering group.
Salary and Culture
- Salary: £90,000 - £120,000 (with quarterly performance and salary reviews).
- At iwoca, the best idea wins. We model our culture on independent thinking, challenging untested logic, and evidence-based decisions.
- We provide the infrastructure where every iwocan always has access to the best models and where those models have access to all of our data.
Benefits
- Flexible working hours.
- Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.
- A private GP service for you, your partner, and your dependents.
- 25 days’ holiday per year, 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 external counselling and therapy sessions.
- 3% Pension contributions on total earnings.
- An employee equity incentive scheme.
- Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme.
- Electric car scheme and cycle to work scheme.
- Two company retreats a year.
- A learning and development budget for everyone, company-wide talks, and access to learning platforms like Treehouse.
- Offices in London, Leeds, Berlin, and Frankfurt with drinks, snacks, and community-led groups.
Essential
- Experience developing and owning shared backend services that other engineering teams contribute to and depend on.
- Experience building and shaping distributed systems in complex business domains.
- Advanced proficiency in software development.
- Confidence to work closely with partners from other disciplines to challenge assumptions and discover underlying problems.
- Demonstrable leadership skills: you have mentored juniors and inspired teams to deliver cross-functional projects. You can balance hands-on coding with strategic planning.
- You use AI (like Cursor, Claude Code or similar) in your daily flow.
Bonus
- A strong numerical or technical background, ideally with a degree in physics, engineering, maths, computer science or a related field.
- Experience with Python, Django, or PostgreSQL.
- Familiarity with data analytics or machine learning processes.
- Experience with complex data architectures, including event-sourced data models.
