Tech Lead – Payments Engineering
AI summary
Watu Credit is hiring a Tech Lead for its Payments Engineering squad in Nairobi, Kenya. The role owns payment integrations, the Payment API, and reconciliation tools, with light people management of 3–5 engineers. The position is remote, requires a CS/Software Engineering degree and 7+ years of experience, and the application deadline is 05/10/2026.
- Technical authority for the Payments Engineering squad owning architecture and quality
- Owns PSP integrations including MPESA and Airtel Money payment rails
- Light people management of 3–5 backend, frontend/mobile, and QA engineers
- Requires CS/Software Engineering degree and 7+ years of experience
- Remote role based in Nairobi with salary open to negotiation
AI job guide
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AI salary guide
Source salary availableThe source lists Open. Confirm the final pay, benefits, contract terms and allowances directly with the employer before accepting an offer.
Can you qualify for this role?
- Required7+ years of relevant experienceThe job post includes a minimum experience signal.
- RequiredEducation or certification mentioned in the postThe captured text mentions education, a diploma, certificate, or licence.
- PreferredPractical evidence in security, internship, entregadorThe tags and summary point to skills connected with this role.
- RequiredAvailability to work in Not specifiedThe vacancy is associated with this location.
- UnclearComfort with the Remote contract termsConfirm hours, duration, probation and benefits at the original source.
Documents to prepare
- Likely requiredUpdated CV
- Role specificCover letter or short employer message
- OptionalProfessional references
- Role specificAcademic or professional certificates
- VerifyID or passport only after verifying the employer
Application tips for this job
- Place your strongest Tech Lead – Payments Engineering evidence in the first half of your CV.
- In your cover letter or employer message, connect your experience to Watu Credit and the role in Not specified.
- Add concrete examples related to security, internship, entregador, ideally with measurable outcomes or clear responsibilities.
- Follow the instructions from Corporate Staffing Kenya; avoid sending documents to unofficial contacts or copied links.
- Confirm the deadline, interview location and employer contact before sharing personal documents.
- Plan to submit before the listed deadline: 2026-10-05.
Source and safety check
- Corporate Staffing Kenya
- Original source link available
- Application method is clear
- Deadline is available: 2026-10-05
- HighThe post may mention payment. Verify directly with the official source before continuing.
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Interview preparation
- What experience makes you a strong fit for this Tech Lead – Payments Engineering role in security, internship?
- How have you handled responsibilities similar to those in this job post?
- Are you available to work in Not specified under the listed contract or schedule?
- Prepare examples with clear responsibilities, tools used and measurable outcomes.
- Review the source and research Watu Credit before the interview.
Ask what the first priorities will be in the role and how success will be measured.
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Original source description
Job Title: Tech Lead- Payments Engineering
Date Posted: 25/09/2026
Job Type: Remote
Job Level: Management
Employer: Watu Credit
Industry: IT
Salary: Open
Location: Nairobi
Country: Kenya
Deadline: 05/10/2026
IT Jobs, Watu Credit Jobs. Tech Lead – Payments Engineering oversees payment integrations, architects transaction systems, and ensures API reliability, requires a CS/Software Engineering Degree and 7+ years experience.
Job Summary
Tech Lead is one of the most important individual roles in the engineering organization. You are the technical authority for your squad – you own the architecture, set the quality bar, govern external partners when applicable, and are the primary escalation point for every engineering decision in your domain.
This role carries light people management alongside deep technical ownership. You will have 3-5 direct reports (Backend Engineers, Frontend/Mobile Engineer, QA Engineer). You are responsible for their day-to-day unblocking, their technical growth, and honest feedback on their work. Formal performance reviews and hiring decisions sit with the Head of Engineering – but in practice, your view of each engineer in your squad is the most important input into those decisions. Do not let the word “light” mislead you: if an engineer in your squad is struggling, that is your problem to solve.
You are a peer of the Product Owner, not a subordinate. Product owns What. You own How and When. Sprint commitments are signed off by both of you together. If the roadmap is technically unrealistic, your job is to say so early and clearly.
Squad: Payments Engineering
Quick facts for this squad
Governance: No external partner governance – internal only. All payment provider integrations are owned by this squad.
Primary tech focus: Java backend · Payment rails · MPESA · Airtel Money · Reconciliation Tools · Payment API
Domain responsibilities
Own all PSP integrations using the payment rails architecture provided by the Core Platform team, the integration layer for all payment providers (MPESA, Airtel, and others)
Own the Payment API consumed by other squads and applications. API versioning, backward compatibility, and security are your responsibility.
Own payment operational tools (reconciliation and others) – the technical logic that ensures payment records match across Watu systems and external payment provider records.
Lead technical onboarding of new payment providers – integration design, testing strategy, and production readiness are owned by this squad.
Ensure that relevant events and metrics are available for observability & monitoring of all PSP integrations
This is one of the most business-critical squads. Payments downtime has an immediate revenue impact. Your production reliability standards must reflect that.
Domain-specific requirements (in addition to base JD)
Hands-on experience integrating mobile money APIs (MPESA, Airtel Money, or equivalent) in production at scale.
Understanding of payment reconciliation systems – double-entry accounting logic, discrepancy detection, and financial audit trails.
Familiarity with PCI-DSS or equivalent payment security standards, even in an integration or middleware context.
Experience designing payment abstraction layers that support multiple providers behind a unified internal API.
Fintech or payments engineering background in emerging countries is a strong differentiator.
Key Accountabilities
- Architecture & technical direction
- Own the technical architecture for your squad’s domain – system design, API contracts, data models, integration patterns, and the Architectural Decision Records that document why.
- Enforce the Watu engineering standards within your squad: GitHub for all code, mandatory PR review, coverage gates, OpenAPI documentation, runbooks, and secrets management.
- Be the squad’s representative to the Platform General Architecture – escalate cross-squad concerns, contribute to shared standards, and ensure your squad’s patterns align with the broader platform direction.
- Delivery & quality
- Review and approve all pull requests for your squad. Not as a bottleneck, but as the quality gate. Your name is on everything that ships.
- Define and maintain the squad’s Definition of Done. Work with the embedded QA engineer to ensure quality is built in, not bolted on.
- Own the squad’s release process. Nothing ships without your sign-off – including work from external partners where applicable.
- Drive sprint planning with the Product Owner – translate user stories into technical tasks, surface dependencies, flag risks early.
- People management (light but real)
- You have 4-6 direct reports: typically 1–2 Backend Engineers, 1–2 Frontend/Mobile Engineers, and 1-2 QA Engineers. They report to you for day-to-day work; the QA Chapter Lead reports to the Head of Engineering for standards but to you operationally.
- Unblock engineers actively – pair on hard problems, review designs before they build, and create an environment where asking for help is normal and fast.
- Give direct, timely feedback to your direct reports. Engineer growth happens through clear, specific feedback delivered close to the moment – not through annual cycles. You are the primary person responsible for the development of the engineers in your squad.
- Your input into performance reviews and hiring decisions carries significant weight – the Head of Engineering will lean heavily on your assessment of each engineer in your squad.
- Model AI-native engineering. Every engineer in your squad is expected to use AI/LLM tools actively. You set the tone for what that looks like in practice.
Requirements
- Essential
- 7+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years where you were the de facto technical authority for a significant product area or team.
- Strong backend engineering fundamentals: distributed systems, event-driven architecture, API design, database design, and testing strategy.
- Proven ability to review and reason about code across the full stack of your domain – you can give a meaningful review on any PR your squad raises.
- Experience in an Agile/Scrum or Kanban environment where you drove sprint ceremonies, backlog refinement, and delivery alongside a Product Owner.
- Clear, direct communicator – with engineers, with Product, and upward to the Head of Engineering.
- Strongly preferred
- Experience in fintech, payments, or digital financial services in Africa or LATAM.
- Experience governing external engineering partners or SaaS vendor integrations.
- Hands-on experience with Java backend development (our primary backend language).
- Familiarity with event-driven architecture, Kafka or equivalent message brokers.
- Engineering standards you are expected to uphold
- All code in GitHub – mandatory peer review, unified branching strategy, green CI before merge.
- APIs documented with OpenAPI/Swagger; Architecture Decision Records for significant decisions.
- No secrets in code – AWS Secrets Manager or Vault. OWASP Top 10 awareness is a baseline expectation.
- AI/LLM tooling used actively in your daily workflow – code generation, test writing, documentation, debugging.