Wise
Staff Software Engineer - Global KYC and Onboarding
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Staff Software Engineer - Global KYC and Onboarding
Senior Backend Engineer (IC4) - Global KYC and Onboarding, Wise
About the Role
Global KYC and Onboarding is a team within Wise's Servicing department, dedicated to enabling global expansion and business fine-tuning while ensuring compliance and customer safety. Our squad is unified by three key teams:
Teams in the Squad
- Business Onboarding Verification
- Personal Onboarding Verification
- Wise Platform Verification (B2B platform)
We are diverse, cross-functional teams made up of backend and frontend engineers, mobile developers, designers, data analysts, and product managers. Together, we partner closely to deliver exceptional customer experiences by addressing the critical verification journeys that businesses and personal users complete before accessing Wise's products. We own the entire verification lifecycle, from: 🔹 Document collection flows 🔹 Automated review systems 🔹 Agent tooling 🔹 Compliance monitoring
Our teams operate with high autonomy, make data-driven decisions, and thrive on balancing technical excellence and customer impact. Since we bridge regulatory requirements and customer experience, we foster unique opportunities in an area traditionally resistant to change—but not to Wise.
By joining us, you’ll be directly shaping a traditionally frustrating verification experience into one that’s fast, intuitive, and fair. Your contributions will seamlessly assist customers—whether individuals, small businesses, or global entrepreneurs—to access global banking faster, pay international teams on time, or support loved ones around the world without bureaucracy.
Best of all: You’re not just building systems—you’re removing barriers to experiences that allow our customers to feel financially equipped.
Our diverse expertise runs deep, and the interview process brings clarity: We match your skills with the right team, ensuring success and purpose.
Job Description
Leadership for Impact: Designing Scalable, Secure Systems
As a Senior Backend Engineer (IC4), you’re not just coding—you’re guiding the engineering charge within your team. You’ll play a pivotal role in designing and implementing backend systems that form the backbone of Wise’s global verification platform, while also mentoring peers and bridging technical and business goals.
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What You’ll Do
- Design, build, and maintain high-performance, scalable backend services using Java, Spring Boot, and cloud technologies.
- Lead technical initiatives improving automation, reliability, and performance across verification systems.
- Collaborate with product managers to articulate business requirements into technical roadmaps and solutions.
- Mentor junior engineers through code reviews, technical guidance, and knowledge sharing.
- Drive architectural decisions and define the technical strategy for a seamless, high-integrity verification process.
- Build internal tools to empower our verification agents—helping them work faster, smarter, and more accurately.
- Contribute to culture with best practices, thought leadership, and shared insights into product excellence.
What We Need to See
We’re looking for a True Tech Champion whose expertise aligns with—yet exceeds—our mission. Ideally, you’ll evidence this in your experience: ✔ 10+ years in Java 8+, with recent, hands-on Spring framework experience. ✔ Experience with both SQL and NoSQL database systems, and understanding of relational vs. non-relational data tradeoffs. ✔ Strong system design skills – demonstrate experience building distributed services at scale, optimizing for throughput and resilience. ✔ Proven track record of leading technical initiatives and providing peer mentorship. ✔ Deep understanding of security best practices, including data protection, compliance principles, and ethical AI. ✔ PhD-level problem-solving skill and attention to detail—ability to think creatively under complexity. ✔ Communicates clearly, whether translating technical nuance for non-tech teams or advocating for solutions with stakeholders. ✔ Bonus: Experience with financial or KYC verification systems is invaluable, but passion for our mission trumps all!
Hypotheticals Guiding Your Fit
When you take root with us, small-scale examples of your impact may extend to questions like: 📌 How might you design a system to automate manual review workflows while ensuring data integrity? 📌 Which distributed microservices patterns best minimize latency in cross-border verification? 📌 Beyond code, how’ve you driven culture—beyond ‘do-it-right’, towards creativity within constraints?
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Our interview process measures authenticity and curiosity—and we love brainstorming with problem-solvers.
What We Offer
- Compensation at the Senior Backend Engineer (Grad/vantage) level (IC4):
- £105,000 – £130,000 base salary, including Stock and RSU Allocation.
- Why Wise varies—but hypergrowth, remote-first flexibility, and our mission as a borders-free finance revolution set us apart.
- At the Well: Banking-equivalent PTO, parental leave/diversity policies that speak loudly, coaching program investments, and more investments into your whole career.
Culture & Commitments
"For everyone, everywhere." We cultivate a environment where inclusion isn’t policy but practice. Teams composed of rogue thinkers, innovators, caregivers, and early adopters thrive when they match our bias-toward-individuals ethos.
- Diversity, equity and inclusion aren’t just buzzwords:
- Your differences build observant, empathetic teams who truly make financial freedom accessible.
- We celebrate fluid identities in all iterations of newness.
- Transparency & Impact beneath the noise:
- We’re proud of our team’s collective 500+ people strong across 20+ countries.
We’re also noisy (if favorably). Follow our journey: @wise, or explore more on Wise Engineering Medium.
Ready to Transform Beyond KYC?
Check the resources listed to match smarter:
- How We Work & Cultural Introspection
- Full 2025 Tech Stack Deep Dive
- Career Arc Visualization - Wise Engineering
- Infrastructure Confidential: Our Scale
- How to Apply
Note: Physical Hybrid office is possible, but choice resides with You. We use #LI to reference our standard posting language.
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