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NALA is a fintech company building cross-border payments infrastructure for the next billion users. Since 2022, the company has grown 120x, scaled from 9 to 150+ employees, raised $50M+ from top-tier investors, and was named to the Forbes Fintech 50 in 2025 and 2026. The team includes alumni from Wise, Stripe, Monzo, Revolut, and CashApp.
The company operates two core products: NALA (a consumer app enabling cheaper, faster, and more reliable cross-border transfers from the UK, US, and EU to Africa and Asia) and Rafiki (B2B payments infrastructure powering global payments).
You will join Rafiki Engineering as an Engineering Manager, reporting to the Senior Engineering Manager. You'll lead one of the engineering squads, acting as the connective tissue between product and engineering to ensure alignment, predictability, and quality execution while supporting individual growth and contributing as an IC where appropriate.
Key responsibilities include: running squad ceremonies and sprint planning; owning architectural decisions and code quality; managing 1:1s, retros, and career development for 4-8 direct reports; contributing hands-on to small-to-mid-sized PRs and code reviews; owning the full hiring funnel for your squad; serving as the primary engineering liaison to Finance and Compliance; and partnering with your Product Manager to maintain roadmap alignment.
This is a direct line management role, not a tech lead or matrixed position. You'll need to be technical enough to judge engineering work directly (particularly Go code), but the role is not primarily hands-on coding. You'll operate in a sub-20-engineer org where career frameworks and squad-level metrics are still being built, so you'll propose the structure you need rather than wait for it.
Must-haves: 2+ years directly managing 4-8 engineers; experience owning delivery for a squad through multi-quarter projects without a dedicated scrum master; 20+ interviews conducted and at least one full-cycle requisition owned; structured onboarding of at least two hires; experience with systems supporting thousands of concurrent users; senior-level Go experience (concurrency, SOLID principles, strong testing). You must demonstrate structured people processes (1:1s, feedback, performance reviews, career development), performance management via direct technical assessment, recruitment and hiring ownership, project management with real metrics, cross-functional collaboration, and clear communication.
