Staff Software Engineer (Team Lead) – Engine by Starling

Overview

In this role you will lead and shape the Engine platform for global banks, driving high-impact technical solutions. You will coach and grow a high-performing team while steering complex projects from inception to run, ensuring reliable delivery and customer value. You’ll contribute to architecture decisions, improve tooling, and champion a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement. This is about shaping scalable, cloud-native backend systems that empower banks with innovative features. You will operate in a collaborative, open environment that rewards ownership and impact.

Pay / Benefits

• 33 days holiday
• birthday day off
• pension scheme
• life insurance 4x salary
• private medical insurance with VitalityHealth
• Cycle to Work and EV leasing

Responsibilities

• Coach, mentor, and grow a high-performing team while maintaining well-being
• Lead multiple complex projects from inception through to run
• Contribute hands-on to architectural decisions and unblock challenges
• Own technical challenges critical to business success
• Identify and deliver improvements to tooling, applications, or processes
• Collaborate with clients, solution architects, product owners, and engineers to meet client goals
• Understand banking operations globally to inform solutions
• Shape future Engine capabilities including tooling, automation, and architecture
• Lead by example in code contributions and set a high bar for others
• Champion a healthy engineering culture focused on customer value and continuous improvement

Key requirements

• Proven experience leading and mentoring engineering teams
• Delivering changes to critical systems in a distributed environment
• Proficient developer with high standards for technical quality
• Good understanding of DevOps practices
• Delivering complex outcomes across multiple domains and teams
• Cross-functional collaboration with technologists and non-technical stakeholders
• Coaching and mentoring team members to develop their careers
• Leading technical delivery on large-scale projects

• leadership
• mentoring
• collaboration
• Java (primary backend language)
• Cloud: AWS and GCP (cloud-native)
• Microservice-based architecture

…