Staff Software Engineer, Backend

An Introduction to Primer

Primer is the unified infrastructure for global payments. We give finance and payments teams the visibility and control to reduce complexity, improve performance, and capture more revenue - all from a single platform.

Backed by Sofina, Peak XV Partners, ICONIQ, Tencent, Accel, and Balderton, we're building the payments layer the world's best companies rely on.

Watch our showcase >

Read up on our $100m Series C

Learn more about our culture >

What will you be doing?

• Setting and driving the technical strategy across the Partners engineering teams, from architecture decisions through to hands-on implementation
• Owning the design of core backend services for high-performance distributed systems, with scale and reliability as non-negotiables
• Acting as the technical authority on partner integrations — shaping how third-party PSPs connect with Primer's platform and raising the bar on what "seamless" actually means
• Leading and influencing engineers across teams without direct authority — through code, design reviews, and technical mentorship
• Spotting and resolving cross-team technical dependencies before they become blockers
• Driving adoption of modern engineering practices (BDD, TDD, rigorous documentation) and holding the line on quality
• Partnering closely with Product to shape roadmap decisions where the technical constraints or opportunities are material

What We're Looking For

• Demonstrable experience operating at staff or principal level — setting technical direction across multiple teams, not just within one
• Deep backend engineering expertise, with a track record of designing and building distributed systems at scale
• The kind of judgment that earns trust fast — engineers follow your technical lead because you're right, not because of your title
• Experience with Python is a strong advantage; we're less concerned about specific languages than we are about depth of backend systems thinking
• Solid understanding of payments infrastructure or developer platform engineering — you know what it takes to build for third-party integrators
• Strong written and verbal communication; you can make complex technical decisions legible to non-technical stakeholders

🚫 You May Not Like It Here If

• You enjoy working in an office-setting, we are remote-first and always will be!
• You are not comfortable with shifting context and navigating ambiguity

✅ A typical interview process

• An initial intro call with a Talent Partner
• An interview with the Hiring Manager
• Challenge Stage - Contextualised to the role
• A final, values-alignment interview

What’s the culture like at Primer?

We’re building a culture where people can come and do their best work and enjoy it. We want our people to be proud of the impact that they have at Primer, and of the work that they are doing. You will be working with a team of people who are mission-driven, smart, and reflective, and who are invested in building exceptional products and delivering success for our merchants _(and we also know how to have fun along the way).

_We work remotely. We believe that building a successful, profitable company goes beyond proximity. We invest in our relationships with each other through great remote working practices and thoughtfully designed face-to-face time together. Our heads-together time comes in the form of workstations, our annual company retreat, and co-working space access worldwide.

Finally, let’s go ahead and say it. The work that we do is challenging. Scaleups are a challenge, building category defining products is a challenge. You should be prepared for a challenge at Primer. But, there’s a big difference between a challenge and a struggle. The key difference is that the right challenge comes with the right support structures, an acceptance that not everything always goes to plan, a collaborative environment, and a great team around you. It’s never a challenge that you will face alone.

Our benefits

🌍 We are fully remote and globally distributed; and have been since day one

💰 Competitive share options

🌴 Uncapped holiday, with 25 days minimum to be taken

🗣️ Co-working space access

📅 Workations & Company Retreat

💻 The best equipment for your role

🏠 £500 towards your home office setup

🔎 Generous learning budget

🏥 Private Medical Insurance

📈 A broad set of additional perks and benefits (_depending on location)

_Don’t meet every single requirement?

At Primer, we’re dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply.

You may be the right candidate for this or other roles. Primer is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees, regardless of background or beliefs.

Primer adopts a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination. We are committed to providing equal opportunities to all current and prospective employees regardless of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.