Lead Full Stack Engineer

PlannerPal is an AI-powered platform transforming how financial advice and wealth management are delivered. We help advisers and their teams save time reduce admin and deliver better client outcomes by automating meeting notes documentation and CRM updates.

Trusted by hundreds of advisory firms PlannerPal is reshaping the advice industry improving efficiency compliance and data quality across the client journey. The company recently signed enterprise contracts with both a top-10 and a top-5 UK wealth management firm further establishing its position as a key technology partner in the sector.

Recognised by the Financial Times Adviser as one of the Top 3 AI tools for financial advisers PlannerPal is a UK-based wealth tech company backed by venture capital investors with deep experience in financial services technology and AI. The platform is scaling rapidly through numerous industry technology partnerships including a strategic AI partnership with Iress Xplan.

The Role;

Were now looking for a Lead Full-Stack Engineer to take ownership of solution design and lead delivery across a distributed engineering setup.

You will:

• Own the design for key features of our solutions
• Organise and manage the work of a small squad of engineers
• Ensure that coding and testing standards are upheld

This role offers the opportunity to work closely with the founders at a defining stage in our growth.

Tasks

Responsibilities;

Solution design;

• Own the end-to-end solution design for new features within a defined architecture framework
• Make pragmatic decisions about trade-offs (scope performance scalability security) in a fast-moving environment.

Delivery leadership;

• Act as the day-to-day technical and delivery lead for a squad of engineers
• Define and manage the work: break down Product Requirement Documents and user stories into clear tasks estimate effort set priorities and timelines and track progress to ensure on-time delivery.
• Run or participate in ceremonies (stand-ups planning reviews) to keep work aligned and unblock issues quickly.

Hands-on development;

• Take ownership of complex or high-impact pieces of work especially where the architecture integrations or performance considerations are non-trivial.
• Design build and optimise the journeys of our service using our tech stack:
• Backend: Python
• Frontend: React Flutter
• Data / Infra: Postgres AWS ( S3 ECS etc.)
• Write high-quality testable code and contribute to our continuous integration and deployment pipelines.

Technical ownership & continuous improvement;

• Take ownership of technical design as part of a small fast-moving team.
• Help evolve our platform architecture for performance resilience observability and security as we scale.
• Identify and drive improvements to developer experience tooling and internal processes (e.g. testing release monitoring on-call) in collaboration with both in-house and outsourced engineers.

Requirements

Key Requirements;

Essentials;

• Degree in Computer Science or related developer education (e.g. a reputable coding bootcamp) or equivalent practical experience.
• 7 years experience designing developing shipping and maintaining backend applications using Python and front-end web applications using modern JavaScript frameworks (ideally ) including operating at lead level.
• Proven experience leading a squads work including planning and prioritising work running ceremonies/stand-ups reviewing output and ensuring on-time high-quality delivery across time zones.
• Strong experience working with both Python and React and some experience working with AWS hosting/back-end services.
• Significant experience using agentic coding tools
• Experienced in designing building and maintaining automated tests and contributing to CI pipelines.
• Has worked with other developers in an agile set-up(e.g. sprints stand-ups retros).
• Experienced in debugging and fixing live incidents in time-pressured situations and in improving systems/processes to prevent recurrences.
• Experience of working with continuous deployment pipelines (you dont have to build everything yourself but should be comfortable working within and improving such setups).
• Strong understanding of industry trends and development best practices especially regarding security application performance and scalability.
• Has a strong sense of ownership attention to detail and the ability to work independently with a team-oriented work ethic.
• Strong communication skills for effective teamwork and collaboration and confidence interacting with customers and partners in a technical leadership capacity.
• Is proactive initiates improvements and offers assistance even without being asked.
• Comfortable in using AI code development tooling
• Right to work in the UK

Nice to haves;

• Experience inB2B SaaS ideally in fintech wealth tech or other regulated industries.
• Experience integrating with CRM systems and/or financial platforms.
• Exposure to observability and monitoring tools (e.g. logging metrics tracing).

Benefits

• Competitive salary employee share options
• Remote-first work environment (UK-based team) with a collaborative team culture
• Regular team meet-ups to foster team synergy and alignment
• Work directly with the founding team your leadership and decisions will have a visible measurable impact
• An open transparent work environment where your voice is valued and your contributions directly shape the companys trajectory
• Clear growth path: as the business scales youll have opportunities to expand your scope ownership and influence