Vetted on a call by a Wave consultant, not scraped. £150,000 and above.
Java expert with 15 years hands-on, now leading a team at a listed work management SaaS platform. The payments chapter before that is the strongest part of the CV, staff engineer on global pay-in experience and engineering lead on high amount transfers at a cross-border money transfer fintech, and before that software development manager over fraud and financial crime at a global investment bank. Builds data-intensive systems on Kafka, Kotlin, Spring Boot, Postgres, Cockroach and Kubernetes with Helm.
Looking forThey want the lead or engineering manager title properly rather than another staff IC seat. Considering a move out of Clapham for more space, so location flexibility matters. Targeting £125,000 to £145,000 in conversation, which sits under the listed ask.
How they came acrossSceptical about principal roles for a reason they articulated well, that they require being seen as the best engineer in the company, and they'd rather be judged on what a team ships. They went and explored a take-home repository ahead of a process elsewhere, which shows initiative and also became a talking point, so worth knowing.
Java 21, Kotlin, Spring Boot · Kafka, Postgres, Cockroach, MongoDB · Kubernetes, Helm, Docker, AWS · TypeScript, Node, React
Civil service and defence systems into banking, then payments, then SaaS, moving from senior engineer to development manager to team lead. 8 employers, average tenure 1 year 6 months, longest 3 years.
Ranked mid-pack in one recent process elsewhere, and they're firm that they won't come in as a principal.
Masters in electrical and electronic engineering from a Russell Group university. Vendor certifications in Java and Linux system administration, plus a City and Guilds leadership award.
Manages a backend-weighted platform team of about 5, including tech leads and staff engineers, building the foundational infrastructure underneath the AI products at a listed work management platform of roughly 3,000 people. Event-driven work is the throughline, Kafka, schema registry, SNS and SQS, event streaming, with Go, TypeScript and Ruby, Snowflake and MySQL on AWS. Earlier they ran platform engineering and then product engineering at a compliance software company, and led data privacy and governance teams at a fraud prevention business.
Looking forThey want to be nearer the work again, at a smaller and more technically demanding company, IC or hands-on EM either way. The reorganisations and the distance from a Tel Aviv-based team have worn them down.
How they came acrossStayed hands-on through the whole management run and is currently doing well on external coding assessments, which is rare at 17 years. What they kept coming back to was wanting personal relationships with the people they work with rather than another org chart.
Go, TypeScript, Ruby, Java · Kafka, SNS/SQS, schema registry, event streaming · Snowflake, MySQL, Elasticsearch · AWS, CI/CD, Sidekiq
Support engineer to developer to founding engineer, then platform and product engineering leadership at a compliance software firm, a fraud prevention business and now a listed SaaS platform. 4 employers, average tenure 1 year 9 months, longest 3 years 4 months.
They won't take fully remote without a clear reason for it, and they'd turn down a full-stack brief because they want to stay backend-weighted.
Masters in information security.
Frontend specialist to a depth you don't often see, TypeScript, React and MobX, and they passed an extensive frontend-focused system design process at a listed SaaS platform to get where they are. They're an IC there now on a team of 5 to 6, on £133,000 plus bonus and stock, with 18 months to 2 years of actual people management behind them from a design software company before that.
Looking forTheir employer cut 20% of headcount and they'd rather move on their own terms than wait to be told. Wants a company with a clear direction and a product they believe in, £160,000 plus base with equity.
How they came acrossVolunteered their own weak spot without being asked, backend system design at scale, and was equally direct that they don't want a startup slapping AI on top of something. Their visa position makes them cautious, and they've been methodical about the search rather than scattergun.
TypeScript, React, MobX, JavaScript · Node.js, CSS, SASS, HTML · SQL, MySQL, Git
Web and embedded developer in Japan, then frontend and engineering lead roles across a crypto exchange group, a global design company and an analytics product, now a listed SaaS platform. 7 employers, average tenure 1 year 3 months, longest 2 years.
On a Tier 2 Skilled Worker visa, so sponsorship and company stability both have to work, and they'll turn down anything with heavy backend ownership attached.
Bachelors in electrical, electronics and communications engineering.
Tell me which came closest and I recalibrate, then come back with 10 to 15 more inside 24 hours.
Show me the wider bank