Engineering Lead

about the role About Us Our client develops financial software focused on automating accounting, payroll, and tax workflows for small and medium-sized enterprises across Europe. The organisation builds cloud-native platforms that handle high-throughput transaction processing, regulatory reporting, and secure data integrations with banks and tax authorities. The engineering teams work closely with product and compliance specialists to deliver reliable, auditable systems that simplify complex financial operations for business customers. Job Description The Engineering Lead will define technical direction and deliver scalable systems that underpin the product suite used by thousands of SMEs. The role requires ownership of system architecture, end-to-end delivery, and operational reliability. The successful candidate will partner with product managers and compliance leads to translate regulatory requirements into robust software solutions. This position is based at the Berlin office and expects active participation in engineering planning, code reviews, and mentorship of senior engineers. Key Responsibilities Own architecture decisions for core services and integrations, balancing scalability, security, and maintainability.Lead end-to-end delivery of complex features from specification through production rollout and monitoring.Collaborate with product, compliance, and data teams to ensure solutions meet regulatory and customer requirements.Drive technical standards, code quality, and observability practices across the engineering organisation.Mentor senior engineers and shape a pragmatic engineering culture focused on measurable outcomes.Participate in incident response and define operational runbooks to maintain service reliability. Requirements 10+ years of software engineering experience with a demonstrable record of delivering production systems in startup or scale-up settings.Deep expertise in system design, distributed systems, and API-driven architectures.Proficiency in at least two of Java/Kotlin, TypeScript/JavaScript, Python, or modern frontend frameworks.Track record of making architectural trade-offs that improved delivery speed or operational resilience.Experience working with regulated domains such as accounting, payroll, or tax systems is strongly preferred.Clear written and verbal communication skills, including producing technical specifications and decision records.Pragmatic leadership: able to execute hands-on while mentoring others without full managerial responsibilities.Experience integrating AI/LLM capabilities into production services is an advantage. Benefits Competitive salary and equity participation aligned to senior engineering leadership roles.Generous vacation allowance and flexible working arrangements with an on-site presence in Berlin.Professional development budget and support for conferences and certifications.Comprehensive health insurance options and wellness benefits.State-of-the-art hardware and a modern engineering toolchain.Commuting allowance or public transport subsidy for Berlin-based employees. Other The role offers a high-impact opportunity to steer technical strategy within a mission-driven financial software platform. Applicants with proven technical leadership and experience in regulated financial products are encouraged to apply. Erika Davies Recruitment Consultant FinTech Specialist erika.davies@forsythbarnes.com My Other Roles Senior Product Engineer (Ref: 197451) Berlin, Germany Senior Product Builder (Ref: 197455) Berlin, Germany Senior/Staff Backend Engineer (Ref: 196342) Remote