Engineering Director - Platform

The Platform Engineering tribe provides the core capabilities that enable Wise to build and run its products at scale. The scope is broad, covering compute and data infrastructure, build and release systems, ML and AI capabilities, and incident and resilience tooling, among others — all within a highly innovative and regulated environment. The platform drives mission-aligned outcomes across reliability, efficiency, productivity, and risk. Today, the tribe consists of 30+ teams.

As Wise continues to grow and the technology landscape evolves, we need to continually adapt and strengthen our platform to support the next phase of scale. We are expanding our leadership team to help shape this evolution. This role sits within our senior platform leadership group.

We’re looking for a proven leader to join us and do things differently.

This is a senior leadership role with line management responsibility, combined with a broader mandate to shape the direction of platform engineering at Wise.

You’ll start by leading a focused team while taking ownership of a broader, cross-team priority, with scope expected to grow as the function evolves. While you’ll begin with a focused team, your impact will extend well beyond it through influence across the wider engineering organisation.

The primary focus is shaping the next evolution of our platform as a cohesive system of capabilities that supports how engineering teams build, ship, and operate software. This includes responding to how emerging technologies, such as AI, are changing developer workflows and platform expectations.

This includes improving how we ensure reliability, evolving platform capabilities, and introducing standards and practices where they create leverage — while enabling teams to operate with autonomy.

You’ll work closely with teams across Wise to align priorities, introduce new ways of working, and help shape how this space evolves over time.

What you’ll do

• Lead and develop a small, high-impact team

• Set clear direction and ensure delivery against key priorities

• Own and drive cross-engineering strategic initiatives focused on evolving platform capabilities

• Work across squads to align on priorities, standards, and ways of working

• Define and introduce platform standards and practices where they create leverage

• Improve engineering effectiveness by evolving platform capabilities, developer workflows, and feedback loops

• Translate emerging technologies and trends into practical applications

• Help shape operating models, team responsibilities, and ways of working that support scalable engineering

• Partner with senior stakeholders to shape strategy and influence decisions

• Use data and insight to guide direction and measure impact

The experience, background and competencies needed to succeed in this role

• Proven experience operating at Director (or equivalent) level within platform or engineering, with strong experience across the software development lifecycle

• Strong track record of leading through influence, not just formal authority

• Experience owning and delivering cross-team or organisation-wide initiatives

• Comfortable working across multiple squads and aligning different priorities

• Ability to define and drive strategic themes (e.g. platform, developer experience, or technology shifts)

• Ability to think strategically while staying close to execution

• Hands-on mindset; able to go deep when needed as well as set direction

• Strong problem-solving skills; able to bring clarity to complex and ambiguous areas

• Excellent stakeholder management; able to influence senior leaders and peers

• Clear communicator; able to simplify complex ideas for different audiences

• Data-driven approach; uses data to guide decisions and measure impact

• Experience introducing new technologies or evolving existing platforms

• Experience improving engineering systems through a combination of technology, process, and culture

• Ability to balance short-term delivery with long-term thinking

• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for outcomes

• Collaborative and low-ego approach; builds trust across teams

• Experience leading leaders, with the ability to build and scale leadership layers over time

• Passion for staying close to industry trends and emerging technologies

• Alignment with Wise’s mission and values 

Leading at Wise

Our 4D leadership framework, defined by four key attributes, captures what it means to be an impactful leader at Wise. Our unique culture gives teams and individuals the autonomy to make impactful decisions for our customers. Leaders empower their teams to deliver this impact and champion our culture.

• Design: Our leaders design the strategic direction, empowering their teams to operate autonomously and make data-driven decisions that directly benefit our customers.

• Drive: They drive a high-performing culture by acting as a coach, nurturing an environment of continuous development and growth.

• Develop: Leaders actively develop resilience and emotional intelligence to lead authentically and by example.

• Disrupt: They disrupt the status quo by championing change and innovation, constantly seeking new ways to achieve our mission.

For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders  — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.
Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

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