Backend Engineer (Python)
iwoca, United Kingdom
Job Description
We’re here because we believe in small businesses. We believe they deserve better than waiting weeks for a loan. And we believe it’s our job to help them grow.
We started in 2012 with these principles, and we hold true to them today now that we’re one of the fastest-growing fintechs in Europe. In the time between, we’ve built the best tech platform in lending, won several awards and opened up 3.5 billion in loans to over 90,000 businesses.
So what’s next? Our mission now is to help one million businesses who need us. To do this, we’ll need new products and partnerships. But most of all, we’ll need smart, hands-on people to join us on the journey and get us to our goal.
About the role
At iwoca we are dedicated to building the smartest lending platform in the world as we believe that finance should be as simple, seamless and powerful as electricity. We like to use Agile(ish) processes, which means features or projects go live in days or weeks rather than months or years.
We run our Django-powered site on AWS, use asynchronous tools (Twisted, Celery) for time-consuming tasks and scientific libraries (NumPy, SciPy, Pandas) for risk aspects. Application orchestration is done with Docker/Terraform/ECS and our monitoring is set up using DataDog/Sentry.
There'll be plenty of opportunities to make an impact and develop your skills, we invest in research to find the best possible outcomes. Our way of working is like a ‘data meritocracy’, meaning you’ll factor project time in for research, and make decisions that are evidence-based.
Requirements
- Python software engineering experience.
- Experience of designing, building, and managing relational databases.
- Strong numerate background, i.e. maths, physics, com-sci, engineering etc.
- Passionate about innovation, evolving technologies and engineering best practices.
- DevOps exposure: i.e. containerization, continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD).
- Able to disentangle bigger problems into small ones, you start by asking ‘why?’
- Happy working in a dynamic and autonomous environment.
- High technical aptitude and attention to detail.
- Focus on ‘getting things done’ and delivering high quality solutions.
We value thought and skill diversity, and encourage you to explore new areas of interest to help us innovate and improve our products and services.
We expect to pay from 50,000 - 70,000 for this role. But, we’re open-minded, so definitely include your salary goals with your application. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates, and run quarterly pay reviews to remunerate staff for their increasing value to our business.
In our interview process, we objectively evaluate a candidate’s relevant skills and attributes, and benchmark their interview evaluation against our internally transparent salary bandings amp; engineering career progression framework.
At iwoca, we prioritise a culture of learning, growth, and support, and invest in the professional development of our team members. You'll have access to ample opportunities for skill-building, mentorship, and career progression, and can decide your career path, focusing on backend, branching into full-stack, or developing your skills in project and people leadership.
Our friendly and inclusive environment, combined with our flexible work policies, ensures that you'll have the perfect balance between work and life, empowering you to thrive both personally and professionally.
Benefits
We put a lot of effort into making iwoca a brilliant place to work:
- Offices in London, Leeds, and Frankfurt.
- Events and clubs, like bingo, comedy nights, yoga classes, football
- Two company retreats a year, we’ve been to France, Italy, Spain and further afield.
- Plenty of drinks and snacks in our offices.
We offer a wide range of benefits:
- Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.
- 25 days’ holiday and an extra day off for your birthday.
- Instant access to emotional and mental health support with our partner, Spill.
- Generous maternity leave and shared parental leave.
- A nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.
- Paid volunteering time to support your chosen charity.
- Extra leave if you want to travel or study.
- One-month fully paid sabbatical after 4 years.
- Cycle-to-work scheme and electric car scheme.
And to make sure we all keep learning, we offer:
- An Lamp;D budget for everyone, including a book budget.
- Company-wide talks with internal and external speakers.
- Access to learning platforms like Treehouse, Frontend-masters and Pluralsight.
Useful links:
- iwoca benefits amp; policies: coda.io/d/iwoca-benefits-policies-UK