At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and build high-volume payment systems that power real money movement.
- Company: Fast-growing fintech revolutionising financial infrastructure with a small, experienced team.
- Benefits: Up to £250k base salary, equity, and competitive total compensation.
- Other info: Join a product-focused culture tackling challenging distributed systems problems at scale.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on critical financial systems with high ownership and autonomy.
- Qualifications: Strong backend engineering experience in payments or fintech; familiarity with distributed systems.
About the Company
We're partnered with a fast-growing fintech building the next generation of financial infrastructure. The platform sits directly in the flow of real money movement, powering payment processing, risk decisions, reconciliation, compliance workflows, and transaction orchestration at scale. These are business-critical systems where correctness, reliability, and resilience matter just as much as performance. The engineering organisation is intentionally small, highly experienced, and operates with a high degree of autonomy. Engineers are trusted to make decisions, own systems end-to-end, and have direct influence over both architecture and product outcomes.
The Opportunity
This is a Staff-level engineering role focused on designing and operating the core systems that power payments across the platform. You'll work on complex distributed systems challenges involving consistency, fault tolerance, idempotency, reconciliation, and auditability, helping ensure critical financial infrastructure remains accurate and reliable under scale, failure, and regulatory scrutiny. Working closely with Product, Compliance, Operations, and Engineering, you'll play a key role in shaping both the technical direction of the platform and the systems that move money every day.
What You'll Be Doing
- Design and build high-volume payment orchestration services
- Develop real-time risk and decisioning systems operating directly within payment flows
- Own ledgering and reconciliation systems that serve as the financial source of truth
- Build fault-tolerant, event-driven architectures capable of operating reliably under failure conditions
- Design systems with a strong focus on consistency, resilience, idempotency, and auditability
- Improve observability, monitoring, tracing, and operational tooling across critical services
- Partner with Compliance and Operations teams to build verification, screening, and audit-ready workflows
- Influence technical architecture and engineering standards across the organisation
- Own services throughout their entire lifecycle, from design and implementation through production operation
What They're Looking For
Core Requirements
- Strong backend and distributed systems engineering experience
- Proven track record building production systems where correctness and reliability are critical
- Background in payments, fintech, banking, financial infrastructure, transaction processing, trading systems, or similarly complex domains
- Deep understanding of distributed systems concepts including consistency, fault tolerance, scalability, idempotency, and event-driven architectures
- Experience operating high-availability production environments
- Strong database and data architecture fundamentals
- Ability to independently own and deliver complex technical initiatives
- Comfortable collaborating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Technology
The engineering team primarily works in Rust, but they are open to exceptional engineers from: Rust, Go, C++. Strong engineering fundamentals and systems thinking are valued significantly more than direct Rust experience.
Nice to Have
- Payments infrastructure
- Ledgering and reconciliation systems
- Fraud, risk, or decisioning platforms
- Compliance, KYC, AML, or audit systems
- Crypto or digital asset infrastructure
- High-performance or low-latency distributed systems
- Strong observability and operational excellence experience
Why Join?
- Build critical financial infrastructure from the ground up
- Work on systems responsible for moving real money
- High ownership and autonomy from day one
- Small team of exceptionally strong engineers
- Challenging distributed systems problems at scale
- Product-focused engineering culture
- Significant architectural influence and technical ownership
Compensation
Up to £250,000 Base Salary
Meaningful Equity Package
Competitive Total Compensation
Staff Software Engineer - Payments | London | Up to £250k Base + Equity employer: Scope Group
Join a dynamic fintech company in London that is revolutionising financial infrastructure with a focus on high ownership and autonomy for its engineers. With a small, experienced team, you'll tackle challenging distributed systems problems while enjoying a product-focused culture that values your input on architecture and technical direction. The company offers competitive compensation, including a base salary of up to £250,000 and meaningful equity, making it an excellent employer for those seeking impactful and rewarding work.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Staff Software Engineer - Payments | London | Up to £250k Base + Equity
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the fintech space, especially those who work with payments or distributed systems. Attend meetups, webinars, or even just grab a coffee with someone in the industry. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings!
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! If you’ve got a GitHub or personal project that showcases your backend and distributed systems expertise, make sure to highlight it. Share your code, write about your thought process, and demonstrate how you tackle complex problems. This can really set you apart!
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for technical interviews by brushing up on key concepts like fault tolerance, consistency, and event-driven architectures. Practice coding challenges and system design questions that are relevant to payments and fintech. We want you to feel confident and ready to impress!
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, we love seeing candidates who take the initiative to connect directly with us. Let’s get you on board!
We think you need these skills to ace Staff Software Engineer - Payments | London | Up to £250k Base + Equity
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV:Make sure your CV reflects the skills and experiences that align with the Staff Software Engineer role. Highlight your backend and distributed systems experience, especially in payments or fintech, to catch our eye!
Craft a Compelling Cover Letter:Use your cover letter to tell us why you're passionate about building financial infrastructure. Share specific examples of how you've tackled complex systems challenges and how you can contribute to our mission.
Showcase Your Technical Skills:Don’t shy away from detailing your technical expertise! Whether it’s Rust, Go, or C++, let us know how your background in distributed systems and high-availability environments makes you a great fit for our team.
Apply Through Our Website:We encourage you to apply directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensures you’re considered for this exciting opportunity to shape the future of payments!
How to prepare for a job interview at Scope Group
✨Know Your Distributed Systems
Make sure you brush up on your knowledge of distributed systems concepts like consistency, fault tolerance, and scalability. Be ready to discuss how you've applied these principles in past projects, especially in high-availability environments.
✨Showcase Your Problem-Solving Skills
Prepare to tackle complex scenarios during the interview. Think about real-world problems you've solved in payments or fintech, and be ready to explain your thought process and the impact of your solutions.
✨Understand the Business Context
Familiarise yourself with the company's mission and the critical role their systems play in financial infrastructure. This will help you connect your technical expertise to their business needs, showing that you can think beyond just code.
✨Engage with Non-Technical Stakeholders
Since you'll be collaborating with both technical and non-technical teams, practice explaining complex concepts in simple terms. This will demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively and work well within a diverse team.
