[Hiring] Tech Lead- Payments Engineering @Watu

Role Description

The Tech Lead is one of the most important individual roles in the engineering organization. You are the technical authority for your squad - you own the architecture, set the quality bar, govern external partners when applicable, and are the primary escalation point for every engineering decision in your domain.

This role carries light people management alongside deep technical ownership. You will have 3-5 direct reports (Backend Engineers, Frontend/Mobile Engineer, QA Engineer). You are responsible for their day-to-day unblocking, their technical growth, and honest feedback on their work.

• Squad size: 4–6 engineers including the Tech Lead
• Reports to: Head of Engineering
• Location: Flexible, Europe or Nairobi

You are a peer of the Product Owner, not a subordinate. Product owns What. You own How and When. Sprint commitments are signed off by both of you together.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years where you were the de facto technical authority for a significant product area or team.
• Strong backend engineering fundamentals: distributed systems, event-driven architecture, API design, database design, and testing strategy.
• Proven ability to review and reason about code across the full stack of your domain.
• Experience in an Agile/Scrum or Kanban environment.
• Clear, direct communicator - with engineers, with Product, and upward to the Head of Engineering.

Requirements

• Hands-on experience integrating mobile money APIs (MPESA, Airtel Money, or equivalent) in production at scale.
• Understanding of payment reconciliation systems - double-entry accounting logic, discrepancy detection, and financial audit trails.
• Familiarity with PCI-DSS or equivalent payment security standards.
• Experience designing payment abstraction layers that support multiple providers behind a unified internal API.
• Fintech or payments engineering background in emerging countries is a strong differentiator.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work in a critical squad with immediate revenue impact.
• Engage in hands-on technical leadership and people management.
• Flexible working location.

Company Description

Watu is a fintech company operating across Africa and Latin America, providing device financing and financial services to customers historically excluded from the formal financial system. We finance motorcycles, smartphones, and other productive assets through a technology-first, data-driven approach.

• Supports millions of customer journeys across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and beyond.
• Continued expansion into LATAM.