Lead Engineer - Rafiki

About Us

NALA is building Payments for the Next Billion. Faster, smarter, and fairer transfers for everyone. Since 2022, we’ve grown our business 120x, grown the team from 9 to 150+, raised $50M+ from top-tier investors, and were named to the Forbes Fintech 50 in 2025. We operate two core products: NALA, our consumer app making cross-border payments cheaper, faster and more reliable for the global diaspora, allowing users to send money from the UK, US and EU to Africa and Asia; and Rafiki, our B2B payments infrastructure, powering global payments. Our team includes alumni from Wise, Stripe, Monzo, Revolut, and CashApp — operators who’ve scaled world-class products. We act with urgency, think deeply, and put our customers first always. At NALA, this isn’t just a job. It’s ownership, impact, and the chance to change global payments forever.

Your Mission

As a Lead Backend Engineer, you’ll shape Rafiki’s backend systems to ensure our payment infrastructure remains fast, reliable, and scalable. You’ll lead engineering projects, mentor teammates, and build tools that power financial innovation across Africa.

Your Responsibilities in this Role

• Lead the design and development of Go-based backend services, optimised for scale and reliability.
• Design and evolve Rafiki’s APIs to power seamless client integrations across global markets.
• Build internal tools that enhance treasury and finance operations with real-time data visibility.
• Implement core compliance infrastructure including KYB, AML, and fraud detection features.
• Drive automation of operational workflows and ensure high system uptime with failover solutions.
• Use metrics and insights to guide technical decisions and product prioritisation.
• Coach engineers and foster a culture of high performance and engineering excellence.

Must-have requirements

• 5+ years building scalable, reliable backend systems using Go.
• Experience in high-growth or startup environments.
• Deep knowledge of RDBMSs like Postgres or MySQL.
• Familiarity with event-driven architectures and tools like Kafka or RabbitMQ.
• Strong cloud infrastructure experience, preferably with AWS and Terraform.
• Comfortable working async with global teams via tools like Slack, Jira.
• Passionate about payments and Rafiki’s mission.
• Fluent in written and spoken English.

Nice to have requirements

• Fintech or payments experience.
• Prior work in a tech startup.
• Exposure to information security practices.
• Experience designing polished, developer-friendly APIs (REST/GraphQL).

Success in the role looks like

• 3-Month Metrics: Treasury tooling deployed with real-time provider balance visibility; Design and implementation plan for finance ledger and reconciliation system; Stable, high-quality backend contributions and peer mentorship.
• 6-Month Metrics: Go-based services and APIs powering at least one new financial product; Improved infrastructure reliability with automated failover in place; Significant engineering velocity and reduced support overhead via system automation.

Interview Process

You will need to first submit your application through our ATS Workable. There is no need to submit a Cover Letter. If successful you will be selected for our interview process which has 4 interviewing stages:

• [30mins] Interview with the Talent Team: This is our initial touchpoint. We’re keen to understand your motivations and experiences better.
• [1 hour] Coding Challenge: You’ll complete a pair programming exercise live, with two of our engineers.
• [1 hour] Architecture Interview: You’ll solve an architecture challenge with two of our Engineering Managers.
• [30 mins] Interview with the CTO or Hiring Manager: The final interview will involve speaking with the CTO about your motivation for the role and will be a great opportunity to ask any questions you have about the business.

References

We conduct reference checks as standard for all of our hires at NALA.

Decision

We’ll aim to come back to you with a timely decision and feedback on your overall interview process.

Benefits

UK / EU / Remote, we have the following benefits:

• 35 Days Off: Enjoy an amazing 35 days of holidays to unwind and explore (This will be 27 days + 8 Bank Holidays if UK-based).
• Birthday Leave: Celebrate your special day with a bonus day off to take off in that month.
• Enhanced Parental Leave: We offer 16 weeks of full pay for the primary caregiver and 4 weeks of full pay for the secondary caregiver (After your probationary period).
• Global Workspace: Get access to WeWork locations worldwide.
• Learning Budget: Fuel your growth with $1000 annually for learning and development.
• For people who come to our London office; Hybrid Working: We work in our Canary Wharf Office four days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday).
• Sarabi: Themed snacks and Friday lunch focused on building great working relationships with the team.
• Monthly Socials: Join fun social events every month for great times.
• Free Coffee: Enjoy barista-style coffee at your fingertips.