Engineering Manager
Engineering Manager (Hands-On)
Playter is a UK-based SME lender providing flexible finance to growing businesses. We combine product-led underwriting, real-time data ingestion, and proprietary risk models to originate and service short-term lending at scale.
In late 2025, Playter was acquired by Shawbrook Bank. This significantly expanded our engineering remit. We are now building and operating product and platform layers supporting both:
- Player-originated lending products
- Shawbrook unsecured SME lending
This includes core servicing systems, risk infrastructure, regulatory reporting, and bank-grade integrations.
We are actively migrating from a traditional CRUD-style architecture to an event-sourced system across core financial domains (accounts, payments, transactions, balances, journal postings). This is a foundational architectural shift and a central part of our 2026 roadmap.
AI is deeply embedded in how we work. We use AI-assisted development tooling extensively, and our product workflows include AI-driven data extraction and understanding layers.
Team & Environment
- Small, high-calibre engineering team
- TypeScript monorepo
- Node.js services
- tRPC API layer
- Postgres + Prisma
- GCP infrastructure
- Strong product-engineer ownership model
- High autonomy, high accountability
Engineers work directly with Risk, Finance, Operations, Sales, and Shawbrook stakeholders. Problems don’t arrive as neatly written tickets. You’ll help define them, pressure test assumptions, and shape the solution before a line of code is written.
We’re not a feature factory. You own things end to end - discovery, design, sequencing, implementation, integration, shipping, and watching it in production. If something breaks, you care. If something feels wrong in the domain model, you fix it.
The expectation is high autonomy with high accountability. Engineers are trusted to make architectural decisions and are equally responsible for the operational consequences of those decisions.
Role Overview
We are seeking an early-career Engineering Manager. This may be a Tech Lead moving into management, or someone with 1-2 years of existing management experience.
This is not a pure management role. You will remain hands-on, contributing technically (often via AI-assisted development), while taking responsibility for team performance, planning, and delivery.
The team is small. This role requires strong organisational discipline without introducing unnecessary bureaucracy.
Responsibilities
- Line management of engineers (1:1s, feedback, development plans)
- Workload planning and prioritisation
- Delivery tracking across multiple parallel initiatives
- Cross-functional coordination (Risk, Finance, Bank stakeholders)
- Maintaining high engineering standards
- Contributing technically to key projects
Required Experience
- Strong full-stack engineering background (Node/TypeScript preferred)
- Experience leading projects end-to-end
- Experience mentoring or leading engineers
- Exposure to stakeholder management
- Structured thinking around planning and sequencing work
Ideal Experience
- Transition from Tech Lead to EM
- Experience in fintech or regulated environments
- Comfort working in small, high-autonomy teams
- Experience managing change during acquisition or integration phases