Thought Machine
Senior Back End Engineer

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Thought Machine is solving one of the biggest problems in banking – modernising core systems. Since launching in 2014, our mission has been to liberate banks from outdated, legacy technology which stifles their ability to innovate. Thought Machine's product, Vault, is a cloud native, core banking engine built to run any type of bank – from established Tier 1 banks to new challenger banks.
To move closer to achieving our mission, we are looking for highly talented individuals to join the fast growing team. With a founding team drawn from Google, we have a deep culture of engineering excellence and we believe our product focus and pursuit of excellence will engender a seismic shift in the banking industry.
Thought Machine was ranked as the most desirable London fintech to work at by Sifted when comparing employee reviews on Glassdoor. AltFi also named us one of the best European Fintechs to work in 2021. We have been awarded the Fintech 50 award by FintechCity and recently named in IDC’s Top 100 Fintech companies. We pride ourselves on having an excellent internal culture, where we consider cultural fit as important as technical fit when we make new hires. At Thought Machine, we strive hard to create a fast-paced, supportive and fun working environment to enable the team to produce the best technical work in the industry.
About the role:
Back End Engineering is a key role within Thought Machine as Back End Engineers lead the development of Thought Machine’s Vault product. We pride ourselves in excellence in this role, adopting the best practices in continuous deployment monorepo style development. While development at Thought Machine is fast paced, you will be expected to develop code to a high standard and production ready state.
Duties:
- Design, implement and develop scalable, performant microservices using best practices
- Write automated unit tests, integrate tests, etc.
- Interfacing with other engineering teams to ensure that features are added in a structured and coherent way
- Managing and debugging your deployments from testing environments all the way to production
- Translating customer requirements into trackable tickets
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
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Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
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Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
Requirements:
- 6+ years of experience as a Software Engineer
- Experience with either Python or Golang
- Experience in developing automated tests as an integral part of the development cycle
- Interest in working on client-facing projects, conducting scoping and defining deliverables
Desirable:
- Knowledge of banking / finance
- Experience with AWS or other cloud providers
- Familiar with databases (SQL or noSQL)
- Experience with client/server software architectures & networking, or microservice architectures
- Experience using orchestration tools such as Kubernetes or Mesos
- Experience of either managing a team, or a desire to manage a team in the future
Company Benefits
Thought Machine is committed to making a measurable positive impact on our employees everyday lives both inside and outside of work.
- Highly competitive salary
- Pension plan (match up to 5%)
- Life Insurance- 3 times annual salary
- Competitive Maternity and Paternity leave
- Shared parental leave
- 25 days holiday + bank holidays
- Flexible working hours
- Cycle to work scheme
- Season ticket loan
- Access to exceptional learning materials and courses
- Sports and hobby clubs, subsidised by Thought Machine
- All the latest tech you need
- Start the day properly with fresh fruit and cereals
- Huge range of healthy (and not so healthy) snacks, smoothies and drinks
- A talented & experienced team as your colleagues
- An environment where we encourage learning and progress


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Health and wellbeing
We are committed to the health and wellbeing of our people and offer all employees a comprehensive private health insurance package with dental and optical cover. We understand that our team needs to take breaks to fuel their brain so we have an onsite gym with a generous discount. We also offer a comprehensive pension plan, where we match employee contribution’s up to 7%.
In the office
Enjoying time away from your desk is key to happiness in the workplace. We provide breakfast with your favourite cereals and fruit. Throughout the day we offer a wide selection of snacks and drinks. Our fridges are stocked with soft drinks and our hot drinks machines make everything from an espresso to an oat flat white. Every Friday, we bring in a different catering popup store so our team can wind down before the weekend. And on the last Friday of every month, we haul in the arcade machines ranging from Mario Kart to Pac-Man to unleash our competitive spirit.
Out of office
Thought Machiners have set up a wide range of sports and hobby clubs anyone can get involved in - ranging from football to movie club - all subsidised by Thought Machine. Once a year we take over a mystery location for our annual Thought Machine Away Day. Last year it was Margate’s theme park, Dreamland!
Learning and development
Joining Thought Machine will enable you to learn valuable skills so you can progress in your career. New joiners all embark on a Thought Machine Training Academy, where you learn from our experts in technology, design and banking. As your career develops at Thought Machine we continue to offer training to build your skills in sessions ranging from giving effective feedback to building grit, and many more.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
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