Lead Software Engineer

Department: Technology

Location: London

Employment Type: FullTime

About Abound

We’re redefining consumer lending in the UK, and beyond. Using advanced AI and Open Banking data, we make fair, affordable personal finance available to more people. While traditional lenders rely almost entirely on credit scores, we look at the full financial picture - how much you spend, and what you can afford to repay to build a deeper, more accurate understanding of each customer's unique financial situation.

And we've shown it works at scale. We’ve issued over £1.3bn in loans directly to customers while delivering market-leading credit performance - for every 10 defaults the industry expects, we see only 3. We also reached profitability just 2.5 years after launch.

Backed by £2bn+ of funding from top-tier investors including Citi, GSR Ventures, and Deutsche Bank, we’re recognised as one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintechs (Sifted, CNBC). Now, we’re expanding into new markets and product lines - and we’re looking for ambitious people who want to learn fast, take ownership, and grow with us.

About the Role

We're looking for a Lead Python Engineer to lead our New Products & Geographies Engineering team. The team launches and scales new lending propositions that expand Abound's B2B product offering and geographic reach. We move quickly, exploring ideas through production-ready MVPs and iterating as products mature.

This role combines hands-on engineering, technical leadership, and team management, reporting to the Chief Product Engineer. You will contribute directly to the codebase while helping guide the team's delivery, supporting engineers with complex problems and maintaining strong engineering practices through code review, testing standards, and pragmatic technical decisions. You'll mentor engineers and help the team balance speed with long-term maintainability.

You will work closely with product managers, clients, and cross-functional engineering teams to translate product ideas into clear technical plans and deliver the features required to launch new lending products.

We value engineers who take ownership, bring clarity to ambiguous requirements, and enjoy solving complex problems that have real business impact.

At Abound, you'll be part of a culture that values autonomy, curiosity, and continuous improvement. You'll work with a modern Python-based stack, gain deep exposure to financial operations in a fast-growing lending business, and have the autonomy to deliver meaningful technical improvements in collaboration with experienced stakeholders.

Our technology stack:

• Python (FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, OpenTelemetry, Procrastinate)

• PostgreSQL

• Liquibase

• Docker

• AWS

Who you are:

• Strong experience building production systems in Python

• Experience leading engineers or technical projects, even without formal management responsibility

• Experience collaborating directly with business stakeholders to gather requirements and translate them into technical solutions

• Strong engineering judgement and the ability to make pragmatic technical trade-offs

• Comfortable working in fast-paced environments where accuracy, reliability, and clear communication are essential

• Proficient in writing well-structured async Python code with type hints and unit tests

• Experience maintaining codebases for business-critical systems

• Strong sense of ownership and a focus on delivery

• Experience working with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure)

• Experience with lending products or financial services would be a bonus

What you'll be doing:

• Lead and manage a team of up to five engineers, supporting their growth through regular 1:1s, feedback, and performance management

• Design and build Python services and features that power new lending products and client integrations

• Collaborate with Product Managers and other stakeholders to understand, challenge, and refine requirements

• Translate product ideas into clear technical plans and deliver production-ready systems

• Support engineers through code reviews, pairing, and technical guidance

• Participate in the full software development lifecycle - from design and implementation through testing, deployment, and monitoring

• Help structure the team's delivery process, including sprint planning, sizing, and retrospectives

Provide second-line support during business hours, troubleshooting and resolving production issues that affect clients

What we offer:

• Everyone owns a piece of the company - equity

• Hybrid with 3 days a week in the office

• 25 days’ holiday a year, plus 8 bank holidays

• 2 paid volunteering days per year

• One month paid sabbatical after 4 years

• Employee loan

• Free gym membership

• Team wellness budget to be active together - set up a yoga class, a tennis lesson or go bouldering