Staff Software Engineer

Department: Engineering

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: London

Reporting To: Chris Pavlicek

Compensation: £100,000 - £120,000 / year

Description

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

• Competitive salary – carefully benchmarked.
• 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, ensuring financial security in any circumstance.
• Private Health Insurance - Which includes access to high quality medical care, mental health support, dental and vision plans, Wellness programs and preventative care initiatives are also provided to ensure the wellbeing of your entire family.
• Income Protection Cover – Safeguard your income with comprehensive coverage, ensuring financial stability in the event of illness or injury.
• Enhanced parental leave – Time off when it matters most.
• Flexibility for those who need it – We’re office-first, but life happens. Whether you’re a parent or have care responsibilities, we focus on output and trust you to manage your time.
• 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, spreading the cost with tax free monthly installments.
• Paid Sick Leave – Receive 10 days of fully paid sick leave each calendar year.

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