Software Engineering Manager

ABOUT THE ROLE Lean is looking for a hands-on Software Engineering Manager to lead and grow our Client Experience (CX) engineering team. This is a player-coach role: you'll be writing and reviewing production code, setting architectural direction, and leading a team — often in the same week. You'll own the platform components, APIs, and standards that define the quality of every client integration, and partner closely with Product to ship meaningful improvements to client activation and experience. This is a rare opportunity to build a team from the ground up into a genuine pillar of Lean's engineering organisation. ABOUT LEAN Lean is the leading financial infrastructure provider in the Middle East. We power some of the region's largest companies with APIs that enable payments, account verification, financial data access, and other critical financial infrastructure. What started as the region's pioneering Open Banking platform and quickly became the de facto leader in account aggregation and payment initiation in the region is now becoming something bigger: a multi-product infrastructure company powering payments, data, and lending across MENA. We've processed billions of dollars in transactions. We're trusted by 350+ clients — from Binance and Careem to Etisalat — and backed by General Catalyst, Sequoia, and Shorooq. Our $67.5M Series B was just the beginning. We're expanding into new markets, opening offices, acquiring businesses, and building capabilities that didn't exist here before. WHAT YOU'LL OWN - CX delivery — lead project management and technical execution for the CX squad as a true player-coach: writing and reviewing production code, making architectural decisions, and driving technical strategy, all in one role - Platform ownership — maintain and evolve CX-owned platform components, ensuring reliability, quality, and continuous improvement of the services that underpin the client experience - API standards — act as the authoritative standards-setter for Lean's APIs across all products; provide tooling and guidance to other engineering teams to drive adoption of consistent, high-quality API design - People leadership — manage, coach, and develop a team of 2 engineers today, with a clear mandate to grow the team to 5–8 reports through 2027 - Team building — make the case for headcount growth, hire great engineers, and build CX into a standalone pillar with an ambitious mission spanning all client touchpoints WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Must-have - 8+ years of engineering experience, with 3+ years in a management or equivalent role demonstrating both technical and people leadership - Full-stack engineering capability — comfortable writing and reviewing production code across frontend and backend, with AI-assisted development as a standard part of how you work - Strong proficiency with React, TypeScript, Java, and Spring Boot - Experience in backend systems design and architecture - Deep familiarity with API design principles and best practices - A quality-first mindset — testing frameworks are visible in your work history and you have a clear, practised approach to how quality gets delivered - Ability to manage observability, monitoring, and incident response for production services - Track record of building and growing engineering teams through hiring and internal development - Strong communicator — able to translate technical decisions for non-technical audiences and vice versa - Comfortable operating in fast-paced, high-ambiguity environments and making good decisions with incomplete information Nice to have - Experience in fintech or regulated industries - Prior experience scaling a team from a small group to 5+ direct reports NB. While we think the above experience could be important, we’re keen to hear from people that believe they have valuable experience to bring to the role. If you identify with the team and mission, but not all of our requirements, then please still apply!! WHY JOIN US? We’re building the financial infrastructure for MENA. Not as a slogan, as a fact. Since 2019, we’ve become the first regulated Open Banking and Open Finance company operating across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We’ve processed billions of dollars. We connect millions of accounts. We enable companies like Binance, Careem, and Etisalat to build products that were previously impossible in this region. Our recent $67.5M Series B from General Catalyst and Sequoia isn’t just validation: it’s fuel. We’re expanding into new markets, launching new products, and setting the pace for what financial innovation looks like in MENA. We solve hard problems. We move fast. We hold ourselves to a high standard. And we’re looking for people who’ve done this before to help us do it right. If you’re motivated by building something that lasts, not just something that scales, Lean is where you need to be. Not only do we offer competitive salaries, private healthcare, and flexible office hours, but we also insist that every member of the team hold a meaningful equity stake in the business to ensure long-term alignment. We'd love you to join us for this journey! Lean is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. When applying for a job at Lean Technologies, we will need to collect, use and share Personal Data about you with different members of our team during the application process. This may mean transferring your data to members of the team in one of our office locations worldwide outside of the country you are in. Please refer to our Privacy Notice on our website for more information about how we may use and store your Personal Data