Staff Backend Software Engineer

About Freetrade

Freetrade’s mission is to become the default place to invest. Investing has been too complicated and expensive for too long, keeping millions from making the most of their savings. We’re changing that. We’re building our team and looking for people who are excited to reshape how our customers invest and grow their wealth. If you’re driven by solving complex problems and building innovative products, you’ll fit right in.

2025 is a big year for us. In January, we announced a game changing deal to become part of the IG Group. We’ll continue to operate as an independent business while gaining access to the resources and support of an established leader in the space. This year, we’re accelerating our roadmap and taking our products to the next level. We’re building new features like mutual funds, bonds, and family investment tools. We’re also exploring how we can leverage AI to deliver an even better experience for our customers.

Why Join Our Engineering Team?

Be part of a team that’s shaping the future of investments. As an engineer, you’ll play a pivotal role in developing and maintaining a robust, scalable platform used by thousands daily. We tackle complex technical challenges, drive innovation, and build solutions that make a real impact. Here, your code doesn’t just run - it powers the decisions of investors across the UK. Join us and turn ideas into reality.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design of scalable, reliable, and maintainable system architectures
• Write and review production-grade code, upholding high standards of quality and readability
• Provide technical leadership to a team of engineers, guiding architectural direction and project execution without direct line management
• Conduct technical design and code reviews to maintain system integrity and team velocity
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Product, Design, Ops) to design aligned, pragmatic technical solutions
• Mentor engineers and support their technical growth in partnership with engineering managers
• Identify and address technical debt through proactive refactoring and system improvements
• Drive and approve high-impact technical decisions with long-term maintainability and scalability in mind
• Monitor system performance and ensure strong observability, alerting, and incident response practices
• Contribute to architecture documentation and facilitate system knowledge sharing
• Partner with engineering and product leadership to influence long-term engineering strategy and technical roadmap

About You

• Proven track record of leading complex technical projects and influencing engineering direction at scale
• Deep expertise in system architecture, distributed systems, and software design patterns
• Advanced programming skills in at least one language
• Strong experience with cloud platforms (AWS or GCP) and CI/CD pipelines
• Skilled in building scalable, secure, and testable codebases in production environments
• Familiarity with both SQL and NoSQL data stores, and when to use each
• Fluent in English, with strong written and verbal communication skills
• Comfortable leading technical discussions and guiding engineers through ambiguity
• Experienced in providing team-wide technical leadership without formal management responsibilities
• Knowledge of code quality, system security, and modern software development lifecycle best practices
• Bonus: Experience in fintech or banking

Benefits & Interview Process

Freetrade is the place to accelerate your career. Our benefits package and ways of working are designed to attract and retain the most talented people who are dedicated to making an impact at Freetrade. Here’s what’s on offer in 2025:

• Hybrid working culture: We’re operating in a hybrid model: 3-days in-office / 2-days from home.
• Flexibility for those who need it: We have a hybrid working model, but life happens. If you need flexibility let's talk about it, whether you're a parent or have other care responsibilities.

Values

At Freetrade we live and breathe our values: Honesty, Focus and Grit. Expect to be asked about these in your interview!

Benefits In London:

• Competitive salary – carefully benchmarked.
• Bonus Scheme: join us and share in our growth.
• Holidays – 25 days plus UK public holidays. Your birthday off, plus one extra day for every year at Freetrade.
• Enhanced pension – We’ll match your contributions up to 5%.
• Group Life Insurance – Protect your loved ones with coverage at 5x your salary.
• Private Health Insurance - Which includes access to high quality medical care, mental health support, dental and vision plans.
• Income Protection Cover – Safeguard your income with comprehensive coverage.
• Enhanced parental leave – Time off when it matters most.
• Learning & Development – We fund industry qualifications so you can grow as a financial services professional.
• Cycle to Work scheme – Get a high quality bike and gear through our salary sacrifice scheme.
• Paid Sick Leave – Receive 10 days of fully paid sick leave each calendar year.

Following the close of the deal to become part of IG Group, you can expect that our benefits package will further improve to align with the benefits on offer.

Interview Process

We keep things simple and transparent. Our process typically includes:

• Initial interview – A chat with one of our Senior Talent Partners.
• Hiring Manager interview – A deep dive into your skills and experience.
• Live Coding – Show us how you think and solve problems.
• System Design – We’ll explore how you design systems to handle real-world challenges.
• Executive interview – A conversation with our stakeholders, where we also assess cultural fit.

We are an Equal Opportunity employer committed to a diverse and representative team. Whatever your race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability - we want to hear from you.