Principal Engineer, iwoca
£100-140k
+ Share Options
Online loans for small businesses
Open for applications
Online loans for small businesses
201-500 employees
Open for applications
£100-140k
+ Share Options
201-500 employees
Company mission
To fund one million small businesses.
Role
Who you are
- Expertise in systems architecture, including designing and managing complex domain models.
- Advanced proficiency in software development using an object-oriented language
- Business-orientation: you can collaborate with stakeholders to translate complex challenges into scalable solutions. You have owned technical systems that deliver business outcomes in fast-paced environments
- Demonstrable leadership skills: you have mentored juniors and inspired teams to deliver cross-functional projects. You can balance hands-on coding with strategic planning
- Experience building and shaping large systems in complex business domains
Desirable
- Experience with Python, Django or PostgreSQL
- Familiarity with data analytics and Machine Learning processes
- An understanding of complex data systems, including event-sourced data models
- A strong numerical or technical background, ideally with a degree in maths, physics, computer science, engineering, or a related field
- Front-end development experience
What the job involves
- Lead the evolution of our offers generating systems and associated architecture
- You'll build and improve critical systems, shape iwoca’s technical vision, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver innovative, data-driven solutions
- The Offers team owns our offer generation engine
- They’re responsible for designing and optimising the systems that determine the most relevant loan offers for new customers — including features like pricing, credit limits, and other offer terms
- The team continuously experiments with new product ideas and ensures these are delivered through an intuitive, high-performing digital experience
- This involves close collaboration across engineering, product, data, and design to align offer strategy with customer needs and business goals
- You’ll play a key role in realising iwoca’s long-term vision for a dynamic, data-driven offer strategy
- You’ll lead the design and development of systems that intelligently tailor loan offers — including pricing, amounts, and other offer terms — to each customer based on their unique profile and needs
- This means moving beyond static rules to build scalable, adaptive systems that integrate real-time data and business logic
- Your work will be central to how we deliver the right product, to the right customer, at the right time — a capability that’s critical to iwoca’s future growth
- Re-architect the team’s code to meet an ambitious set of ever-changing challenges, though you’ll need to collaborate with principal engineers in other teams to design and deliver a coherent system as the system evolves to meet our long-term goals
- Conceive projects for the team to continuously improve aspects of various systems and processes
- Lead the evolution of our system architecture to optimise customer journeys and enhance offer generation processes
- Build strong stakeholder relationships, mentor junior developers, and foster a culture of learning and innovation. The systems that relate to new applications are fundamental to iwoca’s success
- Share a clear technical vision that aligns with long-term goals while working closely with tech, product, and analytics teams
- Enjoy open communication and access to leadership without layers of bureaucracy
- Embrace the energy and adaptability of a startup, where decisions are made quickly, and every day brings new opportunities and challenges
- Collaborate with teams that use shared systems and infrastructure, with support from common resources like a DevOps team
Salary benchmarks
Our take
UK SMEs are the backbone of a complex economy that is constantly changing, so the need for fast and responsive access to finance is becoming more and more important to ensure their success and growth. iwoca allows SMEs access to business loans in less than a minute, with its API and business marketplace partnerships.
With offerings like iwoca's, gone are the days where waiting up to eight weeks for a loan decision was viable. Its simplified business loans of £1,000 - £500,000 come with no fees attached, and applying online takes no more than five minutes. The ready availability of iwoca loans gives business owners a level of certainty, so that they can make instant decisions to help their business grow.
iwoca has made a number of partnerships with other players in the business finance space, including an impressive industry-first invoice checkout integration with QuickBooks. Funding raised by the company, which is now operating at net profitability, will enable it to meet a recent surge in demand for corporate loans and offer more to larger SMB businesses. And the company has made several billion in funding available to over 100,000 businesses since launching, positioning itself as a leading European fintech.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Employee endorsements
Opportunities to learn
"Great opportunities available to learn from both individuals through shadowing, and teams through presentations and even secondment opportunities -..."
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Aug 2019
$13.5m
GRANT
Feb 2019
$26.9m
SERIES D
Total funding: $97.6m
Company benefits
- Work where you work best: Twice a year we rent houses in places like Sicily and the French Alps where each team can work together for a week poolside. We champion flexible working in all our teams
- Invest in iwoca: We want people to be invested in iwoca's success so after six months you'll be awarded share options
- Keep yourself healthy: We offer comprehensive health insurance and cash plans. You'll also get gym discounts and we host yoga classes in the office every week
- Start (and end) your day right: Each floor of iwoca HQ has a fully stocked fridge for breakfast and every Friday we unwind with beers and wine
- Life-work balance: We know your life outside of work comes first. We offer enhanced maternity and paternity leave for new parents plus a nursery benefit. We also have unlimited unpaid leave
- Learning and development: Whether you want to learn to code, experiment with motion design, or beat cognitive biases, you'll have time and budget to invest in your professional development
Company values
- Motivated: Going to work shouldn't feel like a slog, so we want everyone in the team to personally care about what they're working on. We stay motivated by celebrating our wins, learning from our mistakes, and always looking for new gaps to step into
- Smart: At iwoca being smart isn't about what you know, it's about how you think. Smart thinking means looking at each problem by asking ‘why’ first, then figuring out ‘how’
- Humble: We know all ideas are flawed, all code has bugs, and everyone makes mistakes - it’s how we learn. For us, being humble means you question yourself first, rather than your team
- Growth Mindset: We think there's always a better way to solve a problem. So we never let ourselves get comfortable with being good enough
Company HQ
Fitzrovia, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Christoph Rieche
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously spent 7 years at Goldman Sachs as a Vice President before co-founding iwoca in 2011.
Joost Versteeg
(CMO)Joost initially joined iwoca in 2017 as an Intern. Since then, they have held a number of roles, from Growth Analyst to Head of Commercial Strategy and became CMO in 2024.
People progressing
Serita joined as a Customer Onboarder, before moving into the Broker Team. Most recently they have been promoted to Partnership Manager.
Leo joined in 2018 as a Client Onboarder. Since then, they have worked in a number of roles and now serve as the Product Manager.
Jenny originally joined the Client Onboarding team and now leads the Customer Success department for the German business.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at iwoca
- We work hard to make iwoca a place where everyone feels welcome, where you can confidently be yourself. We understand that diversity isn't an optional add-on, it's the core ingredient of what makes us great.
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