Lead Backend Engineer - Python

Xelix; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A dynamic financial technology company in Greater London is seeking a Back-End Team Lead to manage and mentor a developer team while also engaging in hands-on coding. The ideal candidate has over 5 years of development experience, with at least 2 years in a leadership role, and a strong background in Python and RESTful APIs. This full-time position offers a competitive salary, a hybrid work environment, and various employee benefits including a personal development budget and on-site gym access.

Benefits

Competitive salary

27 days annual leave

On-site gym

Learning & development budget

Employee discounts

Private medical & dental cover

Enhanced parental leave pay

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional development experience.
• Minimum of 2 years leading a team of at least 3 developers.
• Strong understanding of building scalable solutions in Python.

Responsibilities

• Support developers in problem-solving.
• Conduct code and design reviews.
• Mentor and train team members.

Skills

Python / Web development

Building RESTful APIs

Relational databases (PostgreSQL)

Leadership experience

DevOps familiarity

Education

Computer Science degree or similar

Tools

Django Rest Framework

AWS services

Docker

Job description

About us

At Xelix, we work with some of the world’s largest companies to automate and strengthen their financial controls. Our AI solutions redefine how Accounts Payable teams operate – moving from manual processes to automated, intelligent workflows.

Xelix is a fast-paced scale-up – things move fast and expectations are high. We raised our Series B with Insight Partners in June 2025 and are expanding aggressively. We have a team of 150 talented people pulling together to achieve our goals. Everyone is trusted to take ownership, move fast and have a meaningful impact. We prioritise personal and professional growth, keep things fun, and love to celebrate a milestone together.

In this role you’ll grow, be challenged and help shape the future of Xelix. If you’re excited about building something special with us, we’d love to hear from you.

About the role

Xelix is looking for a Back-End Team Lead to join our fast growing scale-up. The role offers a mix of managerial tasks (leading a team of 3-6 developers) and hands-on coding, to ensure your technical skills are utilised and kept up to date.

The candidate will work alongside the existing Engineering Team Leads and report to the VP of Engineering.

We produce AI-powered software that works with clients’ existing finance systems to identify payment risks and deliver meaningful insights.

What you'll be doing

Technical Responsibilities

Our mantra is “build for the long term” and so we take pride in our work – producing clean, tested, beautiful code. As a manager you will support your team in this by participating in code and design reviews, giving feedback to developers and encouraging their professional development. You will:

• Support developers when they are stuck on a problem

• Facilitate architectural decision making

• Share knowledge to maintain DRY principles and to ensure the codebase is consistent

• Keep up to date with industry developments and bring new technology to the team

You will be well supported to continue your professional development. This includes a conference allowance, a budget for L&D resources, and a monthly session with your manager to identify and track your learning goals.

Managerial Responsibilities

Primarily you would be ensuring your team members are happy and productive.

• Mentoring, training and career planning for your team members

• Conducting monthly 1-1 sessions.

• Collaborating with the Product Team to prioritise and allocate tasks

• Recruitment

• Promote managerial best practice with your team lead peers

What you’ll bring

We are seeking candidates who have 5+ years of professional development experience, a minimum of 2 years experience leading a development team of at least 3 people and a Computer Science or similar technical degree.

For a Python Team Lead we expect a strong understanding of the Python / Web development ecosystem including:

• Familiarity with building RESTful APIs with the Django Rest Framework. We are open to Flask experience too as understand this is easily transferable to Django

• Developing robust and scalable solutions in Python

• Relational databases (we use PostgreSQL on AWS)

• Implementing performance improvement strategies

• Strong Computer Science fundamentals

We have a DevOps team that manage CI/CD, Cloud, IaC etc. An understanding of common AWS services, GitHub, Jenkins, Docker, Terraform is desirable but not essential.

What we offer in return

💰 Competitive salary depending on experience

🏝️ 27 days of annual leave (including 3 days Christmas closing) which increases up to 3 days based on tenure, with the option to roll over, buy or sell up to 3 days

🏡 Hybrid working with one day a week from our dog-friendly Hoxton office

💪 On-site gym and cycle to work scheme

🛍️ Employee discount at over 100 retailers

🏥 Comprehensive private medical & dental cover with Vitality

🍼 Enhanced parental leave pay

📚 Learning & development culture – £1,000 personal annual budget

🌍 We’re carbon-neutral and are working towards ambitious carbon reduction goals

🎯 Lots of team socials & activities

☀️ Annual team retreat

Want to learn more?

• About us

• Xelix blog

• Xelix news

• Xelix glassdoor

We believe that people from diverse backgrounds, with different identities and experiences make our company and product better. No matter your background, we'd love to hear from you! And if you have a disability, please let us know if there's any way we can make the interview process better for you - we're happy to accommodate!

If you're a recruiting agency - we have an existing list of agencies we work with and we are not currently planning on expanding the list. Neither the Talent team nor hiring managers or the Support team will respond to cold outreach.

This is a full-time position, with standard working hours from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday.

Interview Process

While the exact process may vary slightly depending on the role, our typical interview stages are:

1. Introductory Call – A short Teams conversation with a Talent Partner to discuss your background and the opportunity.

2. Hiring Manager Interview – A 30–45 minute Teams meeting to explore your experience and fit for the team.

3. Technical Task or Presentation – A role-relevant exercise to demonstrate your skills and approach.

4. Final On-site Interview – An in-person meeting with our senior leadership team and co-founders at our office.

We strive to make the process clear, efficient, and respectful of your time.