Backend Tech Lead - Funnel Platform

Hybrid in London (UK) or Remote within the UK

We’re hiring a Tech Lead for our Funnel Platform Team.

You will lead the evolution of the shared code, frameworks, and integrations that power our services, build and improve business-critical systems, and shape the technical vision. Your customers are other iwoca engineers.

The company

Small businesses move fast. Opportunities often don’t wait, and cash flow pressures can appear overnight. To keep going, and growing, SMEs need finance that’s as flexible and responsive as they are.

That's why we built iwoca. Our smart technology, data science and five-star customer service ensures business owners can act with the speed, confidence and control they need, exactly when it's needed.

We’ve already cleared the way for 100,000 businesses with more than £4 billion in funding. Our passionate team is driven to help even more SMEs succeed, through access to better finance and other services that make running a business easier. Our ultimate mission is to support one million SMEs in their defining moments, creating lasting impact for the communities and economies they drive.

The Team

The Platform team owns approximately 10 shared services that the rest of iwoca engineering builds on top of - including the frameworks and integrations with external data providers (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, Companies House etc) that underpin our credit decisions. This is not an SRE or DevOps team. Funnel Platform is code and framework focused - building and stewarding the shared services that the rest of engineering depends on.

The team works hand-in-hand with other teams to build and deliver a shared vision for the future of the platform.

The Role

The Tech Lead role combines individual contribution, line management, and ownership of the platform roadmap. You will lead a team of developers focused on the shared services and frameworks that other iwoca engineering teams build on, driving technical strategy and translating our long-term vision into robust, maintainable systems.

Your mission is "Making Change Easy" for the engineering teams that depend on you by owning shared services and being the trusted reviewer for contributions from partner teams, ending conflicts between maintenance and delivery through dedicated ownership.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role where you will take full ownership of the team's roadmap and provide direct line management to its engineers.

A balance of delivery, leadership, and influence:

• Act as a hands-on contributor and lead by example in quality, testing, and performance.

• Drive the technical strategy and execution for the Platform team, translating vision into well-designed, robust, and maintainable systems.

• Set direction without a PM - spot the problems worth solving, back them with data, and drive them to delivery.

Architectural ownership and impact:

• Lead the development of shared frameworks and services that other engineering teams contribute to and build on.

• Collaborate with stakeholders in the commercial funnel teams to build a shared roadmap.

• Own the health of the shared services other teams depend on - spotting emerging issues, reviewing contributions from consuming teams,

• Shape architectural improvements to the shared services over time - measured on developer experience, service health, and reliability, not feature throughput

Team leadership and management:

• Manage and mentor engineers, taking responsibility for their performance, coaching, and career development.

• Define and champion engineering best practices within your team and across the wider engineering group.

The requirements

Essential:

• Experience developing and owning shared backend services that other engineering teams contribute to and depend on - being the trusted reviewer for their contributions and shaping how they build on top of your work.

• Experience building and shaping distributed systems in complex business domains.

• Advanced proficiency in software development.

• Confidence to work closely with partners from other disciplines to challenge assumptions and discover underlying problems.

• Demonstrable leadership skills: you have mentored juniors and inspired teams to deliver cross-functional projects. You can balance hands-on coding with strategic planning.

• You use AI (like Cursor, Claude Code or similar) in your daily flow—whether for work or for fun. You use it to blast through boilerplate and research, so you can focus on the hard parts: complex architecture, rigour, and high-stakes decision-making.

Bonus:

• A strong numerical or technical background, ideally with a degree in physics, engineering, maths, computer science or a related field.

• Experience with Python, Django, or PostgreSQL.

• Familiarity with data analytics or machine learning processes.

• Experience with complex data architectures, including event-sourced data models.

The salary

We expect to pay from £90,000 - £120,000 for this role. But, we’re open-minded, so definitely include your salary goals with your application. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates, and run quarterly performance and salary reviews.

The culture

At iwoca, the best idea wins. We model our culture on independent thinking, challenging untested logic, and evidence-based decisions. We prioritise learning and growth, and give people the autonomy to develop in the direction that makes them most effective.

We're a tech company and believe in the power of AI to help us work faster and better. We provide the infrastructure where every iwocan always has access to the best models and where those models have access to all of our data. We will help our people to learn how to use and grow with the new tools available to them.

The offices

We put a lot of effort into making iwoca a great place to work:

• Offices in London, Leeds, Berlin, and Frankfurt with plenty of drinks and snacks.

• Events and community-led groups, including running groups, padel, and monthly ping-pong and pool competitions.

The benefits

• Flexible working hours.

• Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.

• A private GP service (separate from Vitality) for you, your partner, and your dependents.

• 25 days’ holiday per year, an extra day off for your birthday, the option to buy or sell an additional five days of annual leave, and unlimited unpaid leave.

• A one-month, fully paid sabbatical after four years.

• Instant access to external counselling and therapy sessions for team members that need emotional or mental health support.

• 3% Pension contributions on total earnings.

• An employee equity incentive scheme.

• Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.

• Electric car scheme and cycle to work scheme.

• Two company retreats a year: we’ve been to France, Italy, Spain, and further afield.

And to make sure we all keep learning, we offer:

• A learning and development budget for everyone.

• Company-wide talks with internal and external speakers.

• Access to learning platforms like Treehouse.

Useful links:

• iwoca benefits & policies

• Interview welcome pack