Senior Forward Deployed Engineer

Our Mission

At Ophelos, we believe in a different way to deal with debt. One that puts empathy and understanding front and centre, approaching our customers as individuals — no matter what they’re going through.

For too long, people in debt have borne the brunt of poor industry practices. Intimidating tactics, time-consuming customer service and a one-size-fits-all approach that overlooks the reasons anyone can fall into debt in the first place. Meanwhile, businesses suffer too. Poor customer experience translates to poor customer satisfaction, high churn rates, bad brand reputation and ultimately missed opportunities.

That’s why we’re taking a radically different approach. Pioneering an industry-first AI-native collections platform, we build products that help individuals clear their debts in a way that suits them, whilst providing businesses with an improved customer experience and game-changing insights into their customer base.

Since our launch in 2021, we’ve worked with some of the UK’s leading companies, including Octopus, Scottish Power and Philips — helping millions of people move toward a more stable, debt-free future. In 2023, we were acquired by Intrum, Europe’s biggest credit management service and have begun the next phase in our growth — expansion into 17 European markets over the next two years.

About Ophelos

At Ophelos, we are reimagining credit, collections, and financial health infrastructure across Europe. Our mission is to build fairer, smarter, and more empathetic financial systems through modern software engineering, data science, and thoughtful product design.

As we expand into new markets across Europe, we face a core challenge: adapting to complex local banking standards, regulatory requirements, payment systems, and client integrations while maintaining a clean, scalable core platform. That’s where Forward Deployed Engineering comes in.

The Role

Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) make Ophelos work in each market without changing what Ophelos fundamentally is. FDEs operate right at the intersection of high-calibre software engineering and real-world market expansion.

In this role, you will hold a unique position across Engineering and Markets:

Engineering owns your growth & craft: You are held to rigorous engineering standards—code reviews, architecture design, technical excellence, line management, progression, and pay.

Markets owns the priorities: You work hand-in-hand with named Markets counterparts to prioritize client deployments, integrations, and go-live schedules.

What You'll Do

Edge & Integration Engineering: Build, scale, and optimize per-market client data ingestion and egestion integrations, including APIs, file formats, validation, reconciliation, and replay mechanisms.

Payment & Comms Integration: Connect market-specific payment providers, SMS, email, postal, and messaging vendor APIs through clean platform abstractions.

Configuration & Localisation: Leverage and expand existing configuration surfaces to adapt Ophelos to local regulations and workflow needs.

Market Operations & Defects: Own and resolve market-specific defects within the integration and configuration layers.

Field-to-Roadmap Influence: Collect market needs, measure commercial impact, and author structured Product Cases stating unlock value to shape the core product roadmap.

Client & Partner Engagement: Partner directly with Markets Success and client technical teams during onboarding across Europe.

Our Operating Principles

We solve complex market expansion through structured decision-making:

Configure First: Solve requests using existing product configuration surfaces to deliver fast, maintainable solutions.

Integrate at the Edge: Build robust integration layers against clean, stable Abstraction APIs.

Escalate with Impact: When core capabilities are missing, build compelling business cases to drive product platform development rather than modifying core code directly.

Role Expectations & Responsibilities

Owns complete market onboarding end-to-end, acting as the primary technical authority in client discussions.

Aggregates multi-market needs into the Abstraction API roadmap with product engineering.

Builds reusable integration patterns, market playbooks, and mentors mid-level FDEs.

Confidently leads technical and executive-level discussions with enterprise financial institutions.

What We’re Looking For

Core Technical Requirements

Strong Software Engineering Skills: Production proficiency in Python and TypeScript, with Ruby experience considered a plus.

Data Fluency Under Failure: Hands-on experience with complex schemas, data transformation, validation, reconciliation, idempotency, and replay logic.

Third-Party Integration Experience: Demonstrated ability to evaluate, map, and integrate third-party APIs and protocols safely and reliably.

Cross-Functional Communication: Ability to translate technical details clearly to client executives, product managers, and software engineers alike.

Documentation & AI-First Mindset: Habitual documentation practices and comfort working in an AI-first development environment using tools like Claude Code, Codex, and OpenSpec.

Location & Travel: Willingness to work 3 days a week from our London office in Liverpool Street and travel periodically across Europe.

Senior Experience & Domain Expertise

Regulated Domain Experience: Background in collections, credit, payments, fintech, or adjacent regulated sectors.

Enterprise Onboarding: Track record of navigating complex client data models and multi-stakeholder corporate integrations.

Roadmap Influence: Demonstrated experience building business cases that successfully influenced core product roadmaps.

Why Join Us?

High Impact: Directly shape how Ophelos scales into new European markets.

Technical Rigour: Work with high engineering standards without sacrificing market agility.

Career Growth: Clear progression framework within a rapidly expanding company.

Modern Stack & Workflows: AI-first engineering practices and modern tools.

Ophelos is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

About Our Team

Ophelos launched in June of 2021, backed by investors such as AlbionVC, Connect Ventures and Fly Ventures. In 2023, we were acquired by Intrum, Europe’s biggest credit management service. Our growing team has team helped build some of the world’s most successful businesses, including the likes of Monzo, Google, Oracle, ASAPP, IBM and more — in addition to pioneering innovative products, sitting at the intersection of enterprise, financial technology, artificial intelligence and academia, working with institutions such as Oxford University, the University of Amsterdam and the University of Hong Kong.

Our Values

Supporting customers and businesses to improve their financial health is a long-term mission. Our company values act as our north star, steering our every move as an organisation and are the backbone of our unique company culture. Our values and culture allow us to stay true to our larger purpose, even as we continue to grow at a rapid pace.

Customers and Clients first – We exist to help real people move through debt and to get clients paid back. This commitment drives how we design products, deliver services, and interact with customers and clients daily.

Dream big – We have ambition and drive to succeed - we’re not just raising the bar, we’re confidently asserting ourselves as the benchmark.

Get it done – We’re decisive and embrace a sense of urgency; we don’t let opportunities get away from us. We’d rather act quickly and take informed risks, iterating and learning as we go.

Win as one - We work as one team, supporting each other and aiming for shared goals. At Ophelos, the team isn’t just individual departments - it’s all of us together.