Backbase

Financial Services

(RD)EngineeringTeamLead(ETL)

£75–105k ~AI est. Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Market Sentiment
HIGH DEMAND

Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Lead candidates.

The Brief

“(RD) Engineering Team Lead (ETL) at Backbase. Skills: System design, Architecture, People leadership, Delivery accountability. Manage people. Open an IDE”

What You'll Achieve.

Deliver predictably; Deliver sustainably; Build teams with right balance; Protect team cohesion; Protect delivery momentum; Optimise cycle time; Strengthen delivery predictability; Translate needs into outcomes; Improve delivery capability; Improve operating models; Improve tooling

Industry & Context.

Financial Services
Problems you'll solve

Debugging; Unblocking technical issues; Conflict resolution; Blocker removal

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

5+ years software engineering experience, Recent production code contributions, System design grounding, Architecture patterns grounding, Modern engineering tooling grounding, Deep expertise in at least one area, Broad competence across full stack, Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, Familiarity with test automation, Familiarity with observability, Familiarity with quality-focused development, Experience coaching engineers, Experience running effective 1:1s, Experience providing constructive feedback, Skilled in Agile delivery methods, Experience managing delivery risk, Experience managing stakeholder expectations

Nice to Have

T-shaped profile, Enthusiasm for AI tooling, Willingness to lead AI adoption, High emotional intelligence, Resilience under pressure, Ability to create inclusive environments, Ability to create engaging team environments, Comfortable addressing underperformance, Unblocker who translates and synthesizes, Confident communicator, Track record of building teams, Track record of scaling teams, Track record of building processes, Track record of scaling processes, Track record of building delivery capability, Track record of scaling delivery capability

What You'll Do.

Spin up agentic coding session

Debug production issue

Support customer implementation

Be captain of a squad

Ensure delivery predictability

Ensure engineering quality

Ensure engineer growth

Stay deep in technology

Take on people leadership

Take on delivery accountability

Spend time on system design

Spend time on architecture

Spend time on technical decision-making

Spend time in codebase

Calibrate performance

Participate in design reviews

Make architecture decisions

Ensure security embedding

Ensure scalability embedding

Maintain technical credibility

Understand owned systems

Champion modern engineering practices

Champion CI/CD pipelines

Champion test automation

Champion observability

Champion quality gates

Drive production-readiness

Drive robust release management

Jump in technically during incidents

Coordinate response during incidents

Lead adoption of agentic tooling

Lead adoption of LLM workflows

Lead adoption of AI automation

Experiment with code generation

Experiment with test automation

Experiment with AI-assisted productivity tools

Perform performance calibration

Perform career development

Build psychological safety

Sustain team resilience

Build healthy engineering culture

Sustain healthy engineering culture

Maintain sustainable pace

Manage hiring decisions

Build teams with right competencies

Build teams with right seniority balance

Plan for knowledge continuity

Mediate interpersonal conflicts

Mediate cross-team conflicts

Optimise idea-to-production cycle time

Strengthen delivery predictability

Remove blockers proactively

Collaborate with Product Managers

Collaborate with Domain Architects

Translate business needs

Push back on unrealistic scope

Drive improvement in delivery capability

Drive improvement in operating models

Drive improvement in tooling

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

Last-mile Services teams; Staff Engineers; Product Managers; Domain Architects

Communication Scope

Confident communicator; Adjusts style for audiences; Fosters open dialogue

Process & Methodology

Agile delivery methods, Scrum, Kanban, Delivery risk management, Stakeholder expectation management

Full Job Description

The Role You are an experienced Engineer who manages people, not a manager who used to code.. If you cannot open an IDE, spin up an agentic coding session in Cursor or Claude Code, debug a production issue or support a customer implementation alongside our last-mile Services teams, this is not the right role. You are the captain of a single squad: accountable for delivery predictability, engineering quality and the growth of every engineer in your team. We are looking for technologists who want to stay deep in the technology whilst taking on genuine people leadership and delivery accountability. You will spend roughly half your time on system design, architecture and technical decision-making, with around a fifth of your time in the codebase directly through code reviews, debugging and unblocking. The remaining time is invested in your people: coaching, calibration, hiring and building a team that delivers predictably and sustainably. What you will do Hands-on Leadership: Spend ~70% of your time on development activities like code reviews , design work, and unblocking technical issues System Design and Architecture: Lead and participate in design reviews, RFCs and architecture decisions alongside Staff Engineers. Ensure security and scalability are embedded from the start. Hands-on Contribution: Maintain your technical credibility through active code reviews, debugging production issues and unblocking your team. You write code, read code and understand the systems your squad owns. Quality and Engineering Excellence: Champion modern engineering practices including CI/CD pipelines, test automation, observability and quality gates. Drive production-readiness and robust release management. Emergency Response: During critical incidents, jump in technically or coordinate the response. You are comfortable leading under pressure. AI-Native Engineering: Lead adoption of agentic tooling, LLM workflows and AI automation within your squad to accelerate the development lifecycle

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