Engineering Lead - Payout Core

The team you'll be working with : Payout Core Whenever Wise needs to deliver money — whether through a customer transfer, a business payout, or an internal operational flow — the payout domain is responsible to make this happen. It receives a request: "pay this amount to this recipient," and figures out the how: which partner integration to use, considering availability, bank holidays, and operational windows. It then coordinates the execution, handles retries when things go wrong, and provides the delivery time estimates customers see. Every outgoing payment at Wise flows through the systems this team owns. Payout Core is a newly formed team, dedicated to owning and evolving this domain. We're building the team from the ground up, and we need an Engineering Lead to shape its technical direction, lead its engineers, and drive an ambitious long-term vision: making the payout domain a product-agnostic platform that any team at Wise can use to send money out. What you'll do You'll be joining Wise as an Engineering Lead for Payout Core, with both tech lead and people manager responsibilities: As a tech lead, you will be responsible for the quality of your team's technical solutions, including code quality, architecture, performance, reliability, and adherence to company-wide engineering standards. You will own the payout domain's technical roadmap — from evolving the domain's architecture to designing the next generation of smart routing. You will make sure the team is building the right product in a scalable, sustainable way. This is a hands-on lead role: you will write code, review code, and contribute directly to delivery alongside your team. As a people manager, you will be responsible for your team's productivity, goal setting, career path identification, and supporting the engineers in their individual growth. You will make sure the team has the right size and mix of people, deciding when to hire and who. You will nurture and evolve the team's ways of working as it transitions into an independent, focused unit. Across both: you will drive the payout domain vision, align stakeholders across the organization, and represent the team in cross-team architectural discussions — both reviewing and producing RFCs for decisions that affect the payout domain. What we offer you High-impact, high-visibility work: every outgoing payment at Wise flows through the systems this team owns. The technical decisions made here shape how Wise delivers money — to every recipient, across every product. A team of experienced engineers with years of context in the payout domain, motivated to push it forward as a dedicated unit. Shape a newly formed team as it becomes an independent unit — with strong existing foundations to build from, define the practices, ways of working, and technical identity of the team, within a culture of empowered teams. A long-term vision that's ambitious and still being defined — optimizing how we route payments across partners, building a product-agnostic payout platform — with the space for the team to define how to get there. A role that grows with the domain — as the payout platform evolves, so will the team's scope and yours with it. You won't be doing this alone — you'll have a team with deep domain expertise beside you, and direct support from engineering leadership across the organization as you shape the team's direction. We are fully aware that it is uncommon for a candidate to have all skills listed below, and we fully support everyone in learning new skills with us. So if you have some of these and are eager to learn more, we do want to hear from you. You have experience as a tech lead or engineering manager, with a proven track record of guiding and developing engineers, fostering their growth, and building high-performing, autonomous teams. You have a strong product mindset, consistently prioritizing customer needs and making data-driven decisions. You understand why something is being built, what customer problem it solves, and what the expected impact is. You demonstrate a strong sense of ownership, have excellent communication skills, and a collaborative spirit. You can drive cross-team projects and articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences. You have the ability to own and articulate a technical vision and turn it into a concrete roadmap. You have extensive experience with Java or Kotlin, including proficiency with the Spring framework and understanding of microservice best practices. You are skilled in working with relational databases, including query optimization and designing robust schemas. You are a strong advocate for best coding practices, enjoy writing testable code, and actively participate in code reviews and open feedback. You are comfortable operating in ambiguity — this is a new team with a lot to define and shape. Ultimately, you're someone who gets things done and consistently delivers results. Nice to have: You have experience with payments or financial infrastructure. You have experience building highly reliable and highly available systems in high-traffic environments. What does success look like? You've onboarded and found your place — you understand the team, the domain, and how Payout Core fits within the wider organization You understand the reasons behind problematic payouts and customer difficulties, and how to go about solving them You've built trust with your engineers and have a clear picture of each person's strengths and growth areas You're shaping the technical direction with confidence, making decisions that the team and stakeholders understand and align with You're helping us scale up and build a world-class payout platform by finding solutions to our technical challenges and opportunities Interested? Find out more: How we work – a practical guide DEI @ Wise Wise Tech Stack (2025 update) Our Engineering career map Wise Engineering – What do we offer: Starting salary: €6,666 - €8,333 gross/monthly + Wise's Restricted Stock Units (RSU's) Benefits at Wise and our offices #LI-AT1 #LI-Hybrid For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive. We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences. Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers. If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit . Keep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram . Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money. Min fees. Max ease. Full speed. Whether people and businesses are sending money to another country, spending abroad, or making and receiving international payments, Wise is on a mission to make their lives easier and save them money. As part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money. For everyone, everywhere. More about our mission and what we offer . And we need a talented Engineering Lead to join our mission.