Shawbrook provides finance to a wide range of customer segments that value the premium experience, flexibility and certainly we deliver.  We are a purpose-led organisation, with a focus on delivering long-term sustainable value for all our stakeholders.

We have a diversified offering, with our innovative lending propositions tailored to meet specific customer needs in carefully selected markets across SME, Real Estate and Personal. Our products range from complex structured credit facilities for growth-focused businesses to mortgages for professional landlords and property investors, as well as simple loans for consumers delivered digitally.  We fuel our lending through customer deposits, which we attract by delivering a premium experience, choice and consistently great value to smart savers.

The business model we have created is unique and difficult to replicate, with our ‘best of both’ approach combining deep human expertise with advanced digital, tech and data capabilities.  This combination not only allows us to deliver excellent customer experiences, but to do so efficiently and at scale.  We are proud of our innovative and agile culture, which drives consistently high employee engagement scores and makes Shawbrook an attractive destination for the best talent. If you’re willing to roll up your sleeves, contribute new ideas and believe anything is possible, you’re our kind of person.

Work with us because you:

• Want to be part of a bank built for the dynamics of the modern world
• Relish a challenge and enjoy a fast-paced, innovative and hardworking culture
• Enjoy finding new and better ways to solve complexity and make things happen
• Want to belong to a diverse culture that stands shoulder to shoulder with minority and underrepresented groups
• Care about society and the environment and want to be part of a business that cares too
• Want to continue to grow professionally and be the best version of yourself

We are seeking an experienced Vault Core Smart Contract Engineering Lead to drive the design, development and evolution of our core banking products within the Thought Machine Vault platform.

You will provide technical leadership across smart contract development, ensure high standards of engineering quality and governance, and play a critical role in shaping how core banking capabilities are delivered across Shawbrook.

This role blends deep hands-on engineering with technical strategy, mentorship and cross-functional collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Strategy

• Own the technical direction for Vault smart contract development across multiple banking domains (e.g. deposits, lending, mortgages).
• Define engineering standards, design principles and best practices for smart contract development.
• Act as the senior technical authority on Vault Core architecture and product configuration.
• Guide and mentor engineers, fostering strong domain capability and engineering excellence.
• Contribute to architectural decisions that align with regulatory, operational and scalability requirements.

Smart Contract Development & Configuration

• Design, build and maintain Vault smart contracts using Python within the Thought Machine framework.
• Translate complex product, pricing and regulatory requirements into well-structured, testable smart contract logic.
• Collaborate with the other teams to ensure seamless interaction between Vault and surrounding systems.
• Drive reuse, modularity and maintainability across smart contracts.

Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure smart contract designs align with regulatory expectations, financial controls and internal risk frameworks.
• Support governance, product approvals and audit activities where required.
• Implement robust controls, validation logic and monitoring to mitigate operational risk.
• Contribute to documentation that supports traceability, transparency and change management.

Quality, Testing & Operational Excellence

• Support automated testing for smart contracts, including unit, simulation, integration and end-to-end testing.
• Oversee peer reviews and ensure high engineering standards across the team.
• Support production readiness through observability, monitoring and incident response collaboration.

Collaboration & Delivery

• Partner with Product to refine requirements, clarify priorities and translate business intent into well-defined, deliverable smart contract solutions.
• Support roadmap planning, estimation and technical feasibility assessments.
• Contribute to cross-functional squads delivering iterative enhancements to the core platform.
• Foster knowledge sharing and capability building across the wider engineering function.

We are looking for a technically strong and commercially aware engineering leader with deep experience in core banking platforms.

You will ideally bring:

• Strong experience developing smart contracts within the Thought Machine Vault platform.
• Good understanding of feature composition pattern to build smart contracts.
• Proficiency in Python and software design principles.
• Deep understanding of core banking concepts, including product configuration, accounting events, interest and fee calculations, and ledger movements.
• Experience operating within regulated financial services environments.
• Strong grasp of automated testing strategies, CI/CD pipelines and engineering best practice.
• Experience leading engineers and setting technical direction.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• A pragmatic mindset, balancing innovation with control and operational resilience.

Your Wellbeing - We take your health and well-being very seriously by providing a range of benefits to give you and your family peace of mind. These include:

• Market leading family friendly policies such as access to our Maternity, Adoption and Paternity policies from Day 1 of your employment
• Free access to Headspace, a mindfulness & meditation digital health app
• Free access to Peppy digital health app that offers personalised support through fertility treatment becoming a parent or menopause
• EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) - Offering you support on a wide range of subjects including financial concerns, mental wellbeing and more general queries around family, work, housing, and health
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discounts on gym membership
• Contributory pension scheme & death in service

Your Lifestyle - It’s important you strike the right balance between your work and personal life. We provide benefits to support you when at work and when you’re enjoying your leisure time.

• Minimum of 27 days holiday per year
• Option to buy or sell holiday days through our flexi-holiday scheme
• Discounts on gym membership nationwide
• Access to discounts on a range of high street and online brands
• Community support and charitable giving

Your Contribution - We’re focused on rewarding those that go the extra mile in helping us achieve our goals.

• Participation in our annual discretionary bonus scheme designed to reward your contribution to our success
• Proudly Shawbrook recognition scheme focused on recognising our role models and thanking our colleagues for a job well done