Software Engineering Lead

Job description

About VFX VFX Financial is one of the UK’s fastest-growing FinTechs, helping complex organisations move, manage, and protect money across borders. Built for specialist sectors, multi-jurisdiction structures, and high-compliance environments, we support businesses whose needs go beyond standard banking. We’re selective about who we work with because exceptional service requires focus and commitment. With six international offices, five regulatory licences, and an 83% CAGR over the past three years, we’re scaling rapidly and earning industry recognition along the way — including the Financial Times FT1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies 2026, CNBC UK’s Top Fintech Companies 2025, Wealth & Finance FinTech Awards 2026, and the Business Growth Award from Business Awards UK. Behind it all is a team of ambitious VFXers united by collective ownership, a focus on growth, and a shared passion for solving complex problems. About the Role We’re seeking a highly capable and technically strong Back-End Software Engineer to lead the design and delivery of core systems powering VFX’s global financial infrastructure. You will operate across complex, high-value domains including multi-currency account architecture, payment routing, treasury operations, risk management, compliance workflows, and API-driven client integrations. This role combines hands-on engineering with technical leadership. You will be responsible for shaping architecture, guiding development standards, and leading a team of engineers while remaining actively involved in building scalable, secure, and resilient systems. You will work within a cloud-native environment (Azure), driving best practices across CI/CD, system design, and engineering discipline. This role is suited to someone who brings strong technical ownership, leadership capability, and a pragmatic mindset. You will thrive if you enjoy building high-performance systems while elevating the quality and capability of the team around you. This role can be hybrid at our office in Portimao or fully remote across Portugal. Key Responsibilities Lead the design, development, and deployment of robust .NET applications within a cloud-based Azure environment. Define and implement scalable system architecture, ensuring performance, reliability, and maintainability across services. Drive CI/CD best practices, including the implementation and optimisation of pipelines using GitHub Actions. Collaborate closely with Product, Operations, and Engineering teams to translate complex business requirements into effective technical solutions. Mentor and support engineers within the team, providing technical guidance, code reviews, and fostering continuous development. Establish and uphold engineering standards across coding practices, security, performance optimisation, and system design. Actively participate in and lead code reviews, ensuring high-quality, maintainable, and consistent outputs. Contribute to Agile delivery processes, using tools such as Jira to track progress, manage priorities, and improve delivery predictability. Drive adoption of modern technologies, patterns, and approaches that enhance engineering efficiency and platform capability. Support incident resolution, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement of system stability and resilience. Key Challenges Leading the delivery of enterprise-grade systems within a regulated financial services environment. Balancing hands-on development with leadership, mentoring, and architectural responsibilities. Ensuring consistency and quality across a growing engineering team. Translating complex financial and operational requirements into scalable technical solutions. Driving engineering standards while maintaining delivery velocity. Managing technical decision-making across evolving systems and priorities. Candidate Profile Strong technical leader who leads by example through hands-on engineering and high standards. Demonstrates ownership, accountability, and a commitment to delivering high-quality solutions. Comfortable operating in complex, evolving environments with competing priorities. Communicates clearly across technical and non-technical stakeholders. Passionate about continuous improvement, both personally and across the team. Able to mentor and uplift others while maintaining delivery focus. Preferred Background 5+ years of experience in .NET development, with strong expertise in C# and .NET Core. Proven experience leading or mentoring engineers within a delivery team. Strong experience with Azure services and cloud-native architecture. Hands-on experience building and managing CI/CD pipelines, ideally using GitHub Actions. Experience working within Agile frameworks and using tools such as Jira. Solid understanding of software design principles, including clean architecture and scalable system design. Strong problem-solving capability with the ability to navigate complex technical challenges. Experience working in fintech or regulated environments is advantageous. Preferred Skills: Experience with microservices architecture and distributed systems. Familiarity with containerisation technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes. Exposure to frontend technologies such as Blazor or React. Strong understanding of system observability, monitoring, and performance tuning. Success Measures Delivery of scalable, secure, and high-performance systems aligned to business objectives. A well-architected and maintainable codebase that supports long-term platform growth. Improved engineering standards, code quality, and team capability. Reliable and efficient CI/CD pipelines supporting consistent delivery. Positive feedback from engineering teams, product stakeholders, and operational users. Reduction in defects and improvements in system performance and stability. Strong contribution to team velocity, delivery predictability, and cross-functional alignment. Benefits at VFX We offer more than just perks — we offer ownership. Our benefits include: Generous Profit Share Plan (PSP) Potential equity opportunities via the Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) Competitive salary Annual all-expenses paid company incentive trip abroad Flexible learning & development budget PSP & CSOP Details At VFX, the biggest benefit is the opportunity to act like an owner. Through our Profit Share Scheme (PSP) and Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) , every team member has a chance to own a stake in the business and share in the profits. To show you what that looks like, in 2025, PSP participants received over £1,000,000. Historically, VFX has also offered equity opportunities via Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) , where more than 80% of eligible VFXers chose to become shareholders — a powerful reflection of the belief and commitment that drives VFX forward. If you care about building something meaningful, take pride in your work, and are motivated by impact — you’ll thrive here. Next Steps If you are successful, you will be contacted for an initial call with the People Ops Team, followed by a test and virtual technical interview.