
Backbase · Cardiff
The Job in Short This is a Senior+ Engineer who leads people, not a people manager who used to code. If you cannot open an IDE, spin up an agentic coding sessi...
The Job in Short
This is a Senior+ Engineer who leads people, not a people
manager who used to code. If you cannot open an IDE, spin up
an agentic coding session in Cursor or Claude Code, debug a
production issue or support a customer implementation
alongside our last-mile Services teams, this is not the
accountable for delivery predictability, engineering quality
and the growth of every engineer in your team.
We are looking for technologists who want to stay deep in
the technology whilst taking on genuine people leadership
and delivery accountability. You will spend roughly half
your time on system design, architecture and technical
decision-making, with around a fifth of your time in the
codebase directly through code reviews, debugging and
coaching, calibration, hiring and building a team that
delivers predictably and sustainably.
Meet the Job
Technical Leadership (circa 70% of the role)
● System Design and Architecture: Lead and participate in
design reviews, RFCs and architecture decisions alongside
Staff Engineers. Ensure security and scalability are
embedded from the start.
● Hands-on Contribution: Maintain your technical credibility
through active code reviews, debugging production issues and
unblocking your team. You write code, read code and
understand the systems your squad owns.
● Quality and Engineering Excellence: Champion modern
engineering practices including CI/CD pipelines, test
automation, observability and quality gates. Drive
production-readiness and robust release management.
● BS Detector: Use your technical depth to spot unrealistic
estimates, fragile designs or risk blind spots before they
become delivery problems.
● Emergency Response: During critical incidents, jump in
technically or coordinate the response. You are comfortable
leading under pressure.
● AI-Native Engineering: Lead adoption of agentic tooling,
LLM workflows and AI automation within your squad to
accelerate the development lifecycle. Experiment with code
generation, test automation and AI-assisted productivity
tools.
People Leadership (circa 10% of the role)
● Talent Development: Own meaningful 1:1s, performance
calibration, and evidence-based career development for your
squad of 6 to 9 engineers. Create tailored growth plans and
act as a genuine coach.
● Team Health: Build and sustain psychological safety, team
resilience and a healthy engineering culture. Detect and
resolve friction early. Maintain sustainable pace even under
delivery pressure.
● Hiring and Succession: Manage hiring decisions and
onboarding to build teams with the right technical
competencies and seniority balance. Plan for succession and
knowledge continuity.
● Conflict Resolution: Mediate interpersonal or cross-team
conflicts early to protect team cohesion and delivery
momentum.
Delivery and Execution (circa 20% of the role)
● Delivery Mastery: Optimise the squad's idea-to-production
cycle time. Strengthen delivery predictability through
empirical measurement, process improvement and proactive
blocker removal.
● Stakeholder Partnership: Collaborate closely with Product
Managers and Domain Architects to translate business needs
into technical outcomes. Push back on unrealistic scope with
data, not opinion.
● Continuous Improvement: Drive improvement in delivery
capability, operating models and tooling. Promote visibility
and transparency through effective tracking and
communication.
Current Openings
We are hiring Engineering Team Leads across three value
streams. Each position shares the core role described above
but brings distinct technical context. Apply to the opening
that best matches your background.
1. Identity Value Stream (Backend)
● Core Technologies - Java, Spring Boot
● Agentic Workflow - Already working with Cursor, GitHub
Copilot or Claude Code in your daily engineering workflow
● Distinct Advantage - Experience in Identity and Access
Management (IAM), authentication flows, authorisation
frameworks or security protocols
2. Identity Value Stream (Mobile)
● Core Technologies - iOS (Swift), Android (Kotlin)
● Agentic Workflow - Already working with Gemini, Cursor,
GitHub Copilot or Claude Code in your daily engineering
workflow
● Distinct Advantage - Experience in Identity and Access
Management (IAM), mobile authentication, biometrics or
security protocols
3. Digital Assist Value Stream (Full Stack)
● Core Technologies - Java, Spring Boot, JavaScript, Angular
● Agentic Workflow - Already working with Cursor, GitHub
Copilot or Claude Code in your daily engineering workflow
● Distinct Advantage - Mobile development experience (iOS or
Android) is a distinctive advantage but not a primary
requirement
About Backbase
Backbase is the maker of the AI-native Banking OS, the
operating system that turns fragmented banking operations
into a Unified Frontline. Customers, employees and AI agents
work as one across digital channels, front office and
operations. Every actor operates from the same truth, every
decision carries a full audit trail, and every capability
compounds on the same foundation.
We have been building banking software since 2003. Today,
150+ banks run on Backbase, supported by 2,000+ employees
globally, 4,000+ certified experts and 16 offices across 5
continents. 50% of our team works in R&D, which means
engineering is not a support function here; it is the core
of what we do.
Our platform powers Elastic Operations across retail
banking, small business banking, commercial banking, private
banking and wealth management. We help banks modernise
progressively, one domain at a time, with no rip-and-replace
and no big-bang migration.
The Backbase Code
Seven values define who we are. They guide every decision,
1.Put customers first 2.Start with the why 3.Collaborate as
one 4.Keep it simple 5.Bias for action 6.Raise the bar
7.Tell it like it is
What We Offer
● A mission-driven R&D culture where engineering quality
matters and 50% of the company works alongside you in
product and technology.
● Genuine influence over your squad's technical direction,
delivery approach and team culture.
● A front-row seat in building the AI-native Banking OS,
working with agentic tooling, LLM workflows and AI
automation at scale.
● Hybrid working from our Cardiff office with flexibility
built into the model.
● Competitive salary, benefits package and career
progression along both technical (Staff Engineer) and
management (Engineering Team Lead) tracks.
Location
This role is based in our Cardiff office, Wales, United
Kingdom. Cardiff is one of four main R&D Backbase hubs
alongside Amsterdam HQ, India, Poland and Vietnam. We
operate a hybrid working model with regular time in the
office to maintain team cohesion and collaborative
engineering culture.
Please note: You must have the right to work in the United
Kingdom. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer visa
sponsorship for this position.
How to Apply
If you are a technologist who wants to lead people without
leaving the codebase behind, we would love to hear from you.
Apply now and tell us about a technical decision you led and
how it shaped your team's delivery.
How about you
Technical Depth
● 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience with
recent production code contributions.
● Strong grounding in system design, architecture patterns
and modern engineering tooling.
● T-shaped profile: deep expertise in at least one area with
broad competence across the full stack.
● Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, test automation,
observability and quality-focused development practices.
● Enthusiasm for AI tooling and a willingness to lead its
adoption within your team.
People and Leadership
● An explicit desire to lead people whilst remaining an
active technical contributor.
● High emotional intelligence and resilience under pressure.
● Experience coaching engineers, running effective 1:1s and
providing constructive feedback.
● Ability to create inclusive, engaging team environments
with a strong engineering culture.
● Comfortable addressing underperformance constructively
when needed.
Delivery and Communication
● Skilled in Agile delivery methods (Scrum, Kanban) with
experience managing delivery risk and stakeholder
expectations.
● A strong unblocker who translates and synthesises rather
than simply relaying messages.
● Confident communicator who adjusts style for different
audiences and fosters open dialogue.
● Track record of building and scaling teams, processes and
delivery capability.
Skills and Competencies
● System Design: Leads design reviews and architecture
decisions. Contributes to RFCs with Staff Engineers. Ensures
security and scalability from the start.
● Active Contribution: Maintains hands-on coding
credibility. Regular code reviews, debugging and unblocking.
The team sees you as technically strong.
● Delivery Management: Optimises cycle time, removes process
friction, drives predictable delivery through empirical
measurement.
● Stakeholder Management: Trusted product partner. Manages
expectations proactively. Pushes back on unrealistic scope
with data.
● People Development: Meaningful 1:1s with development
goals. Evidence-based calibration. Engineers visibly grow
under your leadership.
● Team Health: Builds psychological safety and resilience.
Addresses conflict proactively. Maintains sustainable pace.
● AI Fluency: Familiarity with the AI tool ecosystem. Drives
adoption of agentic tooling and LLM workflows across
engineering.
● Problem Solving: Approaches problems systemically and
strategically, balancing short-term delivery with long-term
technical health.
Qualifications
● BSc or MSc in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent
practical experience.
● 5+ years in software engineering roles with demonstrable
technical leadership.
● Experience with Agile delivery, CI/CD pipelines and
quality-focused development.
● Previous experience managing or mentoring engineers
(formal or informal).
● Exposure to banking, payments, fintech or SaaS platforms
is a plus.
Engineering Team Lead (ETL) The Job in Short The ETL is the "Captain" of a single squad. This is a "player-coach" role focused on delivery predictability, people leadership, and day-to-day execution. You are a Senior+ Engineer who manages people, not a manager who used to code; if you cannot open the IDE and debug a production issue, you cannot perform this role. Meet the Job * Delivery Mastery: Optimize the team’s "Idea to Production" cycle time and strengthen delivery predictability. * Talent Density: Own 1:1s, performance calibration, hiring decisions, and succession planning for your squad of 6–9 engineers. * Hands-on Leadership: Spend ~50% of your time on system design and ~20% on hands-on development like code reviews and unblocking technical issues. * Conflict Resolution: Mediate interpersonal or cross-team conflicts early to protect team cohesion and delivery. * BS Detector: Use your technical depth to spot unrealistic estimates, fragile designs, or risk blind spots. * Emergency Response: During critical incidents, jump in technically or coordinate the response effectively. * AI-Native Engineering: Lead the adoption of agentic tooling, LLM workflows, and AI automation within your team to accelerate the development lifecycle. How About You? * You have 5+ years of experience and have shipped production code recently. * You have an explicit desire to lead people but remain an active technical contributor. * You possess high emotional intelligence and resilience under pressure. * You are a strong unblocker who translates and synthesizes rather than just relaying messages.
At Capgemini Engineering, the world leader in engineering services, we bring together a global team of engineers, scientists, and architects to help the world’s most innovative companies unleash their potential. From autonomous cars to life-saving robots, our digital and software technology experts think outside the box as they provide unique R&D and engineering services across all industries. Join us for a career full of opportunities. Where you can make a difference. Where no two days are the same. Your role Own the end‑to‑end bid lifecycle for RFXs and proactive pursuits, ensuring timely delivery of high‑quality, compliant proposals aligned with client requirement Act as the central orchestrator of the bid process, coordinating Sales, Solution, Finance, Commercial, Legal, Delivery, and Business Risk Management stakeholders across Capgemini entities (GBLs, SBUs, BUs) Drive opportunity qualification, supporting Bid/No‑Bid decisions, win themes, and Winning Sales Plans in collaboration with Sales and Solution Leads Lead solution and proposal development, including RFX analysis, proposal structure definition, content coordination, and client‑focused value articulation Orchestrate internal governance and formal reviews, ensuring compliance with Capgemini bid management processes and approval frameworks Manage bid planning, budgeting, and controls, including bid costs, resourcing, timelines, and deliverable readiness Ensure risk awareness and mitigation during the pursuit by working closely with Business Risk Managers, Finance, Legal, and Commercial teams Coordinate stakeholder communication internally and externally, maintaining alignment across pursuit teams and engaging with client stakeholders throughout the bid lifecycle Lead proposal defenses, orals, and due diligence activities, ensuring consistency, quality, and alignment with client business objectives Ensure smooth handover from bid to delivery, including transfer of solution assumptions, risks, commercials, and commitments Your Profile Bachelor’s degree in Business, IT, or a related field (Master’s preferred). Min. 5 years of experience in bid/proposal management in Engineering and RD Services. Strong understanding of Automotive, LiveScience and Telecommunication sectors and good technical understanding and commercial awareness. Exceptional project management and organizational skills. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Fluency in English is required. Proficiency in tools such as Microsoft Office Tools, SharePoint, and proposal automation platforms (e.g., Copilot, Other AI Tools) is an asset. APMP certification is a plus. Application As part of our recruitment process, identity verification or background checks may occasionally be conducted. Capgemini is a global business and technology transformation partner, helping organizations to accelerate their dual transition to a digital and sustainable world, while creating tangible impact for enterprises and society. It is a responsible and diverse group of 340,000 team members in more than 50 countries. With its strong over 55-year heritage, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to unlock the value of technology to address the entire breadth of their business needs. It delivers end-to-end services and solutions leveraging strengths from strategy and design to engineering, all fueled by its market leading capabilities in AI, generative AI, cloud and data, combined with its deep industry expertise and partner ecosystem
ABOUT US Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces. Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected. ABOUT THE ROLE As Harmattan AI parallelly scales several complex hardware programs—including ruggedized drone controllers, long-range RF systems, field-deployable launchers, and the UAVs themselves—we are establishing a dedicated R&D Hardware Tooling team. This team is responsible for building internal tools that live in the lab and within engineering workflows, enabling product teams to design, bring up, characterize, and validate hardware faster and with absolute confidence. In this role, you will own the software and embedded layers of this tooling end-to-end. This is a high-impact, fast-iteration position where your tools directly dictate development velocity. Furthermore, as one of the initial hires, there is a clear path to grow into a Team Lead role based on experience and performance. RESPONSIBILITIES * Tooling Software Architecture: Design reusable, modular automation and analysis frameworks (typically Python-based) utilized across all product programs. * Instrument & Fixture Control: Integrate bench instruments and custom fixtures using SCPI/VISA, serial, USB, GPIB, and Ethernet, abstracting device drivers for team-wide reuse. * Embedded Fixture Firmware: Write and maintain robust firmware (bare-metal and/or RTOS) for MCU-based development and validation fixtures handling I/O, signal generation, and measurement. * Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL): Build HIL and development rigs, integrating them seamlessly into CI pipelines for automated firmware regression tracking. * Data Acquisition & Analysis: Capture, store, and surface critical measurement data via databases, dashboards, and analysis scripts to enable data-driven design decisions. * Bring-up & Debug Support: Build specialized bring-up scripts and debug utilities to support product engineering teams directly at the bench. * Protocol Implementation: Implement and debug hardware communication interfaces including SPI, I2C, UART, USB, CAN, and RF/link interfaces. * Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner daily with tooling hardware and mechanical engineers to define fixture interfaces and support rig bring-up, while translating product team needs into reliable tooling. * Documentation: Maintain comprehensive architecture documents, validation procedures, and usage guides. CANDIDATE REQUIREMENTS Educational Background * Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Embedded Systems, Computer Science, or an equivalent technical field. Core Technical Competencies & Experience * Proven Test & Automation Experience: Demonstrated success building bench automation, HIL/development rigs, or characterization tooling for real physical hardware. * Software & Automation Skills: Strong proficiency in Python automation (using pytest or equivalent frameworks) and instrument control via SCPI/VISA. * Embedded Firmware: Confident writing embedded C/C++ on microcontrollers (typically ARM Cortex-M), spanning both bare-metal environments and RTOS architectures (e.g., FreeRTOS, Zephyr). * Hardware Debugging: Hands-on experience with hardware bring-up and bench debugging tools such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and JTAG/SWD interfaces. * Protocols & Infrastructure: Solid understanding of communication buses (SPI, I2C, UART, USB, CAN) alongside version control and CI pipelines. Professional Attributes & Mindset * Rigorous & Systems-Minded: Possesses a disciplined approach to measurement integrity, clean code, and understanding both the firmware under development and the instruments measuring it. * Autonomous & Pragmatic: Capable of independently driving software architecture decisions while balancing robustness with rapid project execution. * Adaptability & Execution: Thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, bringing a "no-task-is-too-small" mentality to a lean engineering team. * Strong Communication & Collaboration: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; able to work seamlessly across hardware, mechanical, and product software domains without friction. Desirable Pluses * Experience within drone/UAV development, RF/radio systems, or telecommunications hardware. * Prior experience deploying CI-integrated HIL testing systems. * Experience working in ruggedized, military, or industrial-grade hardware environments. We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.