Principal Backend Engineer

The role

You will design and build resilient, scalable fintech infrastructure for payments, merchant onboarding, and transaction processing. You will drive technical success and define architectural foundations that multiple teams depend on.

What you will do

• Own and drive the architecture behind critical platforms
• Design and evolve high-scale, cloud-native systems
• Lead development of resilient, secure, and compliant services
• Shape and drive adoption of modern backend practices
• Architect event-driven systems
• Define and enforce standards for API-first development and domain-driven design
• Set the bar for availability, performance, fault tolerance, and observability
• Partner with Product, Data, and leadership to translate business priorities into technical strategy
• Lead cross-organisational initiatives
• Influence engineering direction through hands-on contribution, design leadership, and mentorship

Required qualifications

• 8+ years of experience building and operating distributed, production-grade backend systems
• Proven track record operating at Senior Staff or Principal level
• Deep expertise in Java (17+), Spring Boot, and modern backend engineering practices
• Strong experience with microservices, event-driven architecture, and asynchronous systems
• Experience building systems for high throughput, low latency, and reliability
• Strong grounding in system design, data structures, and performance trade-offs
• Hands-on experience with AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes in production environments
• Proven ability to implement observability, resilience patterns, and CI/CD best practices
• Excellent communication skills
• A track record of mentoring senior engineers and leading through ambiguity

Benefits

• Flexible working hours
• GymPass access to over 1,500 gyms in the UK
• 1-1 therapy, meditation sessions, digital fitness and nutrition apps
• Extended and improved maternity and paternity leave choices
• Cycle-to-Work Scheme
• Health and Life Insurance
• Pension Scheme
• 25 days of Annual Leave (+ Bank Holidays)
• Office snacks every day

About the company

Teya is building a financial platform for local businesses across Europe. The company aims to provide simple tools, thoughtful design, and real human support to underserved small businesses.