Software Engineering Lead - Investment Technology

Who we're looking for

We're after a very experienced and capable engineer to work with our development teams to deliver high-quality software, quickly and reliably, that has a tangible impact on our business.

You must be proficient and up to date in your field, have a good idea of how to design software for future supportability and extensibility, and be able to command the respect of your engineering peers immediately.

As an Engineering Lead, your focus will be twofold. Firstly, you will spend time with teams across your area, working on delivery, guiding their design and implementation, spotting opportunities to improve what they do, sharing new ideas and best practice, and measuring the difference you make. You'll also be guiding and mentoring other engineers in your area, including contributing technical objectives and reviewing subsequent performance. 

Secondly, you will spend time working with Enterprise Software Engineering and other Engineering Leads, helping to shape the software engineering culture at Schroders. You'll contribute to standards, patterns, practices, reference architectures, shared components, and many other things that will improve the way we deliver software to the business.

You'll need to be a versatile and active engineer, and be able to express your ideas clearly, without being too wedded to them. You'll put collaboration at the heart of your approach to software development, inviting input widely and making sure all voices are heard.

About Schroders

We're a global investment manager. We help institutions, intermediaries and individuals around the world invest money to meet their goals, fulfil their ambitions, and prepare for the future.

We have around 5,000 people on six continents. And we've been around for over 200 years but keep adapting as society and technology changes. What doesn't change is our commitment to helping our clients, and society, prosper.

The team

Investment Technology at Schroders provides essential tools and platforms for our Public Markets investment desks. Our team focuses on building best-in-class applications for investment research, data modelling, portfolio construction, and workflow optimization. We develop cloud-native solutions on AWS, using React for front-ends and Python for backend services and libraries.

As part of our global team, you'll work with skilled technologists to develop efficient, scalable investment tools that directly impact Schroders' business. We're committed to leveraging modern technologies to create innovative solutions that drive our investment capabilities forward. Our goal is to empower our investment professionals with cutting-edge technology, ensuring Schroders remains at the forefront of the rapidly evolving investment management landscape.

We aim to build a great engineering culture. Contributing to this culture will involve following good software craftmanship, TDD and writing clean code. Our systems must be well architected, tested and easy to change. To achieve this goal, we implement mentoring and coaching through regular code reviews and pair programming.

As an Engineering Lead, you will also form part of the broader Enterprise Engineering function. This function exists to help us improve the way we provide business value through quality, predictable, and supportable software delivery. Enterprise Software Engineering also houses our DevOps toolchain team and our Quality Engineering team.

What you'll do

•    Work with Python and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build cloud-first solutions
•    Work across teams in your area, guiding design and development with your technical expertise, and getting your hands dirty on implementation as needed
•    Bring the experience and knowledge to find the right balance between fast delivery, and longer-term sustainable delivery
•    Drive a continuous delivery approach which focusses on developing software iteratively, with fast feedback loops, frequent releases, and a “shift-left” approach to testing
•    Create an inclusive and collaborative engineering environment in which all voices are heard
•    Bring all your talents to help shape our shared software engineering culture across the entire organisation
•    Work in close collaboration with your delivery and product counterparts – sharing the responsibility for managing those in your teams to support their in-role development and career progression
•    Collaborate with and contribute to the engineering community, helping to define best practice and contributing to the ongoing improvement to our ways of working
•    Support the smooth running of teams with administrative activities such as budgeting and forecasting
The knowledge, experience and qualifications you need
•    Strong expertise in Python and common libraries (Pandas, FastAPI etc)
•    Good experience of cloud-based platform technologies e.g. Snowflake, AWS, is an advantage 
•    Good understanding of engineering principles, patterns and best practices for designing applications
•    Plenty of experience in the full lifecycle of developing software from the first idea to the final execution in an agile environment
•    An excellent understanding of testing approaches and putting testability at the heart of software design and development
•    A natural system-level thinker who works with developers and Solution Architects alike to ensure design and technology choices are appropriate.
•    Great design skills, starting from client needs and operational processes, to ultimately ensure solutions are modelled around the business domain need
•    Excellent written and spoken English, and well-developed communication skills to help manage relationships with stakeholders of all levels
•    Ability to produce and communicate effective and insightful thought leadership on technical topics

The knowledge, experience and qualifications that will help

•    Proficiency with Linux
•    Experience using Docker
•    Experience with cloud (AWS or Azure)
•    Experience with SQL and/or NoSQL database platforms
•    Knowledge of different architectures; Event-driven, Service-oriented, Cloud native
•    Designing APIs

What you'll be like

•    You'll enjoy working in teams with many different people
•    You'll be able to remain friendly and positive when under pressure
•    You'll be someone who shows initiative and thrives in a fast-paced and time-critical business environment
•    You'll be self-motivated and keen to improve engineering across Schroders
•    An excellent communicator, in both verbal and written forms
•    Able to explain technical decisions and their rationale to senior management, product owners, and other non-technical stakeholders
•    A coach and sounding board who's friendly, approachable, and takes time to understand others' views
•    A collaborative and inclusive technical leader who seeks input widely and ensures everyone's views are heard
•    Down-to-earth, honest, straightforward, and able to stand your ground without being confrontational
•    You'll be someone who naturally holds themselves accountable, demonstrates integrity and deals fairly with everyone
•    A keen technologist who follows the latest trends, technology, and engineering approaches

We're looking for the best, whoever they are

Our purpose is to provide excellent investment performance to clients through active management. Diversity of thought facilitated by an inclusive culture will allow us to make better decisions and better achieve our purpose. This is why inclusion and diversity are a strategic priority for us and why we are an equal opportunities employer: you are welcome here regardless of your age, disability, gender identity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, socio-economic background or any other protected characteristics