Python Software Engineer

About Abound We’re redefining consumer lending in the UK, and beyond. Using advanced AI and Open Banking data, we make fair, affordable personal finance available to more people. While traditional lenders rely almost entirely on credit scores, we look at the full financial picture - how much you spend, and what you can afford to repay to build a deeper, more accurate understanding of each customer's unique financial situation. And we've shown it works at scale. We’ve issued over £1.3bn in loans directly to customers while delivering market-leading credit performance - for every 10 defaults the industry expects, we see only 3. We also reached profitability just 2.5 years after launch. Backed by £2bn+ of funding from top-tier investors including Citi, GSR Ventures, and Deutsche Bank, we’re recognised as one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintechs (Sifted, CNBC). Now, we’re expanding into new markets and product lines - and we’re looking for ambitious people who want to learn fast, take ownership, and grow with us. About the Role We’re looking for a Software Engineer II to help build the systems that automate how our Finance and Operations teams work. As Abound scales, the manual workflows that powered us through our first £1bn of lending are becoming reliable, observable, automated systems- covering reconciliations, reporting, payments operations, collections workflows, and the day-to-day tooling our internal teams rely on. This is a hands-on engineering role on a small, high-impact team. You’ll write production code every day, taking well-scoped pieces of work from design through testing and deployment, with senior and lead engineers supporting you on the larger or more ambiguous problems. Over time you’ll grow ownership of the components and services you work on, and take on more of the discovery and design yourself. You won’t just close tickets. You’ll get close enough to the Finance and Operations workflows to understand the problem you’re solving, ask good questions, and care about whether the system actually works for the people using it. We value engineers who take ownership, communicate clearly, and want to keep levelling up- this role has a clear path toward Senior Software Engineer. Our technology stack: Python (FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, OpenTelemetry, Procrastinate), PostgreSQL, Liquibase, Docker, AWS Who you are Solid experience building production systems in Python - you’re comfortable with type hints, write tests as a matter of habit, and have some exposure to async code (or are keen to learn) Able to take a well-defined problem and deliver it end-to-end with limited guidance, while knowing when to ask for help on the bigger pieces Care about code quality, reliability, and maintainability, especially when building for internal users where accuracy and auditability matter A growing product mindset- you want to understand the problem behind the ticket, and you’re comfortable asking why Curiosity about how finance and operations functions actually run (reconciliations, ledgers, reporting, payment flows, ops workflows), or a track record of picking up unfamiliar domains quickly Clear communicator who works well with engineers and, increasingly, directly with business stakeholders Comfortable in a fast-paced environment where accuracy, reliability, and clear communication are essential Keen to grow - you take feedback well and want to develop toward more ownership and technical depth Nice to have Experience working with relational databases and writing SQL (PostgreSQL especially) Exposure to cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) Prior experience automating finance, accounting, or operations workflows Interest or experience in lending, payments, or financial services more broadly Exposure to observability tooling and supporting systems in production What you’ll be doing Build and ship Python services and features that automate finance and operations workflows- from data ingestion through to the reports, actions, and exceptions that land with business users Take well-scoped pieces of work from implementation through testing, deployment, and monitoring, with support from senior engineers on larger designs Participate actively in code review, write meaningful tests, and help uphold the team’s engineering standards Work alongside senior engineers and, increasingly, directly with Finance and Operations stakeholders to understand requirements and turn them into reliable systems Grow ownership of the components and services you work on, taking on more of the design and discovery over time Help support business-critical systems in production, troubleshooting issues that affect Finance and Operations users (with support as you build up context) Contribute to the team’s delivery process sprint planning, sizing, and retrospectives Make pragmatic technical decisions that balance shipping today with maintainability tomorrow What we offer • Everyone owns a piece of the company- equity • Hybrid with 3 days a week in the office • 25 days’ holiday a year, plus 8 bank holidays • 2 paid volunteering days per year • One month paid sabbatical after 4 years • Employee loan • Free gym membership • Team wellness budget to be active together-set up a yoga class, a tennis lesson or go bouldering