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For Companies At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a team of engineers to build innovative payment products and services.
- Company: Join a fast-growing fintech redefining digital payments across the UK and Europe.
- Benefits: Enjoy flexible working options and a supportive, collaborative culture.
- Why this job: Shape the future of payments while fostering a culture of innovation and ownership.
- Qualifications: 5+ years in engineering leadership, fluent in Java or similar languages.
- Other info: Opportunity to impact thousands of merchants and simplify money movement.
The predicted salary is between 43200 - 72000 £ per year.
Are you an experienced engineering leader with a passion for building products that move money smarter, faster, and more securely? This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast-growing fintech scale-up that's redefining digital payments and shaping the future of merchant services.
About the Company
Our client is an innovative player in the payments space, delivering next-generation solutions for businesses across the UK, Europe, and beyond. Their platform empowers merchants with seamless payment processing, real-time insights, and secure, scalable infrastructure all designed around flexibility, compliance, and a frictionless user experience. With an ambitious roadmap and a mission to remove complexity from the world of payments, the company is now looking to grow its engineering leadership team to help scale and accelerate delivery.
What Makes Them Different
- Merchant-first mentality: Building technology around real-world business needs.
- Autonomy and trust: Small teams, big ownership, and the freedom to innovate.
- Built to scale: Leveraging modern tools, practices, and cloud-native infrastructure to drive efficiency, security, and resilience.
The Opportunity
As Director of Software Engineering, you'll lead a growing team of 14-20 engineers responsible for building core payment products, merchant tools, and platform services. You'll operate as a player-coach balancing strategic leadership with technical insight and work closely with product, operations, and compliance teams to deliver reliable, scalable payment capabilities. You'll help shape the engineering culture, define best practices, and support the transition to faster, more agile delivery models while maintaining the quality and trust required in a regulated financial environment.
Key Responsibilities
- Recruit, lead, and develop a high-performing engineering team focused on delivering payments and platform innovation.
- Guide teams across the full stack to deliver secure, scalable, and user-friendly products.
- Partner with Product and Compliance to design solutions that balance customer experience with risk and regulatory requirements.
- Foster a culture of ownership, transparency, and continuous improvement across all squads.
- Drive modern engineering practices including CI/CD, automated testing, and cloud-native development.
- Lead by example with hands-on technical oversight and sound architectural thinking.
- Support agile delivery processes that increase development velocity while maintaining stability.
- Champion a learning culture with mentoring, coaching, and regular feedback loops.
- Encourage a pragmatic approach to solving complex challenges around real-time processing, data integrity, and system reliability.
- Collaborate cross-functionally to coordinate large-scale feature development and product delivery.
What You'll Bring
- 5+ years of engineering leadership experience, with at least 1 year at Director level or equivalent.
- Strong background in full-stack engineering, with fluency in object-oriented languages (e.g., Java, C#, C++).
- Proven success in scaling engineering teams and building high-impact, customer-facing products.
- Experience in the payments space, or in a regulated financial environment.
- Strong grasp of agile methodologies, lean delivery, and modern DevOps tooling.
- Excellent communication skills able to influence at all levels and collaborate across disciplines.
- A servant-leader mindset with a passion for developing people and teams.
- Confidence working in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with multiple stakeholders.
Preferred Experience
- Hands-on experience with payment processing platforms, gateways, acquirers, or card networks.
- Familiarity with PCI-DSS compliance, transaction security, and data protection.
- Experience scaling systems with high availability and low latency requirements.
- Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS, GCP, or Azure) and containerised environments.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
What's on Offer
- A senior leadership role with ownership and influence across engineering strategy.
- The chance to shape world-class payment products in a growing fintech scale-up.
- A supportive, forward-thinking culture built around collaboration and learning.
- Flexible and hybrid working options.
- A meaningful opportunity to simplify how money moves and impact thousands of merchants in the process.
Skills: Java Development engineering manager
Director of Software Engineering (Java) employer: Hayward Hawk
Contact Detail:
Hayward Hawk Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Director of Software Engineering (Java)
✨Tip Number 1
Network with professionals in the fintech and payments industry. Attend relevant meetups, webinars, or conferences to connect with potential colleagues and learn about the latest trends. This can help you gain insights into the company culture and expectations.
✨Tip Number 2
Showcase your leadership style during interviews. Be prepared to discuss specific examples of how you've successfully led engineering teams, particularly in fast-paced environments. Highlight your experience in mentoring and developing talent, as this aligns with the company's focus on a servant-leader mindset.
✨Tip Number 3
Familiarise yourself with the latest technologies and practices in cloud-native development and DevOps. Being able to speak knowledgeably about CI/CD, automated testing, and modern engineering practices will demonstrate your readiness to lead a high-performing team.
✨Tip Number 4
Research the company's products and services thoroughly. Understand their merchant-first mentality and how they address real-world business needs. This will allow you to tailor your discussions around how you can contribute to their mission of simplifying payment processes.
We think you need these skills to ace Director of Software Engineering (Java)
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV highlights your engineering leadership experience, particularly in full-stack development and Java. Emphasise any relevant achievements in scaling teams and delivering customer-facing products.
Craft a Compelling Cover Letter: In your cover letter, express your passion for fintech and how your background aligns with the company's mission to simplify payments. Mention specific experiences that demonstrate your ability to lead teams and drive innovation.
Showcase Relevant Experience: When detailing your work history, focus on roles where you led engineering teams or worked in regulated environments. Highlight your familiarity with agile methodologies and modern DevOps practices, as these are crucial for the role.
Prepare for Technical Questions: Be ready to discuss your technical expertise in Java and other object-oriented languages. Prepare examples of how you've implemented CI/CD, automated testing, and cloud-native development in previous roles.
How to prepare for a job interview at Hayward Hawk
✨Showcase Your Leadership Experience
As a Director of Software Engineering, your leadership skills are crucial. Be prepared to discuss specific examples of how you've successfully led teams, scaled engineering operations, and fostered a culture of innovation and ownership.
✨Demonstrate Technical Proficiency
Make sure to highlight your technical background, especially in Java and full-stack engineering. Be ready to discuss your hands-on experience with modern engineering practices like CI/CD and cloud-native development, as these are key to the role.
✨Understand the Payments Landscape
Familiarise yourself with the fintech industry, particularly payment processing platforms and compliance regulations like PCI-DSS. Showing that you understand the complexities of the payments space will set you apart from other candidates.
✨Emphasise Collaboration Skills
This role requires working closely with product, operations, and compliance teams. Prepare to share examples of how you've successfully collaborated across disciplines to deliver high-quality products while balancing customer experience and regulatory requirements.
