VP of Engineering

About Us

YouLend is the preferred global embedded financing platform for many of the world’s leading e-commerce sites, tech companies and payment services providers such as Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Mollie, Dojo, Paysafe, Just Eat Takeaway and Takepayments. Our software platform and APIs enable our partners to offer flexible financing products, in their desired branding, to their merchant base. With YouLend's AI-driven credit risk assessment solutions, more merchants and SMEs than ever can receive fast, flexible and affordable funding. We operate in 9+ geographies across the UK, EU and the US.

We believe that the future of financial services will be delivered by customer-oriented tech companies that embed financing in their customer journeys, and we are building the solutions that will power that future.

The Role:

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced VP of Software Engineering to lead our software engineering organization, driving the development and delivery of world-class software products. As a key member of the leadership team, the VP of Software Engineering will be responsible for defining and executing the engineering strategy, ensuring the scalability, quality, and efficiency of our software development processes. This role requires a visionary leader with a passion for technology, exceptional leadership skills, and a deep understanding of modern software development practices.

The engineering teams under your leadership will build and maintain critical business software for a fast-growing fintech company using cloud based microservices stack running and modern SPA frontend stacks. As VP of Engineering, you will guide the overall technical direction, foster cross-functional collaboration, and build a high-performance engineering organization that drives business success.

The ideal candidate will have a strong technical background, proven leadership in managing large engineering teams, and a track record of delivering high-quality, scalable software solutions in fast-paced environments.

• Engineering Leadership: Define the strategic direction for the software engineering organization, ensuring alignment with overall company goals and objectives. Lead, mentor, and inspire a team of talented engineers to achieve excellence. Foster a high-performance, high-velocity engineering organization, continuously measuring, refining, and iterating on processes to support business growth.

• Technology Strategy: Develop and implement the technical roadmap, ensuring scalability, performance, and security across all software products and services. Collaborate closely with business owners, product management, data, and operations teams to align engineering priorities with business objectives.

• Team Management & Development: Build, scale, and manage a high-performing software engineering team. Foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and accountability while providing career development opportunities.

• Delivery & Execution: Oversee the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC), from architecture and design to implementation, testing, and deployment, ensuring timely delivery of high-quality software solutions.

• Innovation: Stay ahead of technology trends and assess emerging technologies to ensure the company is leveraging the latest tools, frameworks, and methodologies to maintain a competitive edge.

• Engineering Excellence: Establish best practices for coding, testing, automation, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. Drive engineering excellence through technical debt reduction, performance optimization, and code quality initiatives.

• Collaboration: Partner with product, design, and business stakeholders to ensure alignment between engineering efforts and business goals. Ensure cross-functional teams work efficiently to deliver cohesive, integrated software solutions.

• Agile Methodologies: Implement and scale Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) across the engineering organization to drive continuous improvement in delivery speed, product quality, and team efficiency.

• Budget & Resource Management: Manage engineering budgets, including resource allocation, tooling, and technology investments. Optimize for cost-effectiveness without sacrificing quality or performance.

• Metrics & Reporting: Define, track, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure engineering efficiency, quality, and project delivery. Regularly present progress and performance updates to the executive team and key stakeholders.

• Security & Compliance: Ensure that all software development adheres to security best practices and compliance requirements, particularly in industries with specific regulatory requirements (e.g., healthcare, fintech).

Qualifications:

• Experience: 10+ years of experience in software development, with at least 5+ years in senior leadership roles (Director, VP, or similar) managing large-scale engineering teams.

• Technical Expertise: Deep technical knowledge of modern software architectures, including cloud-native development, microservices, APIs, and distributed systems. Experience with relevant programming languages (e.g., Java, Python, C#, JavaScript) and frameworks.

• Leadership Skills: Proven ability to lead and manage large engineering teams with a focus on talent development, team building, and fostering a high-performance culture.

• Software Development Practices: Strong background in Agile development methodologies, continuous integration, test-driven development (TDD), and DevOps practices.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Experience working closely with product management, design, data, and other cross-functional teams to align technology solutions with business needs.

• Security & Compliance: Knowledge of security best practices and compliance requirements, particularly for industries such as finance, healthcare, or e-commerce.

• Problem-Solving: Demonstrated ability to tackle complex technical challenges, make data-driven decisions, and deliver innovative solutions in a fast-paced environment.

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. Advanced degrees and technical certifications are a plus.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with SaaS, fintech, e-commerce, or cloud-based platforms.

• Exposure to AI/ML, blockchain, or emerging technologies.

• Familiarity with enterprise-scale cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and DevOps tooling (Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, etc.).

• Open-source contributions or experience leading community projects.

Why join YouLend?

• Award-Winning Workplace:YouLend has been recognised as one of the “Best Places to Work 2024” by the Sunday Times for being a supportive, diverse, and rewarding workplace.
• Award-Winning Fintech: YouLend has been recognised as a “Top 250 Fintech Worldwide” company by CNBC.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Stock Options
• Private Medical insurance via Vitality
• EAP with Health Assured
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
• Modern and sophisticated office space in Central London
• Free Gym in office building in Holborn
• Subsidised Lunch via Feedr
• Deliveroo Allowance if working late in office
• Monthly in office Masseuse
• Team and Company Socials
• Football Power League / Squash Club

At YouLend, we champion diversity and embrace equal opportunity employment practices. Our hiring, transfer, and promotion decisions are exclusively based on qualifications, merit, and business requirements, free from any discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, nationality, or any other protected basis under applicable law.