Staff Engineer

About Marshmallow

We started Marshmallow when we found out how unfair insurance prices are for people who move to the UK. All because the industry hasn’t given this huge cohort of people a second’s thought, and isn’t set up to price them properly. 

We saw an opportunity to do things differently, so we made it our mission to back the ones who step outside the norm. Since we started, we’ve helped 100,000s of people get a fairer deal on their car insurance. Using technology, we serve people that are often overlooked by financial services companies, solving important problems for people who need it most. 

We know there are millions of marginalised customers out there. And we know that they face unique problems that most companies aren’t even aware of. We believe that our future is helping these people by learning about their experiences, and building our company around their needs. And there are strong signs that there’s a need for a company like us. Earlier this year we hit profitability, which is a huge milestone, but the most exciting thing is that we’re only just getting started.

How we work

We’re really proud of the culture we’ve created. We push for progress every day, because we know that we’ll only hit big milestones by taking lots of smaller steps. We’re always open to helping our team mates, sharing our ideas, experience and knowledge to solve problems together. We take risks, think creatively and experiment relentlessly to meet our customer’s needs, and never pass blame when things go wrong. We encourage people at all levels to take ownership of their work, and to be bold in challenging how we do things. Everyone has a voice and the opportunity to make an impact. 

And autonomy and ownership are only possible with clear direction. That’s why we collaborate to do in-depth planning twice a year, and make sure we leave with clear goals and objectives that flow from top to bottom. To make sure we’re as aligned as possible across functions, most of our work rolls up into four tribes; Acquisition, Retention, Claims and Pricing, Underwriting & Fraud. Each tribe has multiple teams embedded in it, working cross-functionally to do great work.

We’re so excited for all of the challenges up ahead, and we need more people to help us tackle them! If life at Marshmallow sounds like it could be for you, explore our culture handbook or read our blog to find out more.

Engineering at Marshmallow

Our engineers are at the heart of the solutions. They work on product builds from start to finish, solving lots of challenges to help us build fast and scale up! Our engineers cover a range of skills across frontend, backend, fullstack, iOS and android and work alongside designers, data scientists, researchers and product managers within our product teams.

Our product teams include: the Growth team, the Efficiency team, and the Claims team (to name a few!) Each team sets its own roadmap and actively pushes our codebase forward.

What you’ll be doing

• Drive Technical Excellence: Lead the design and implementation of innovative, secure, and performant solutions. Focus on redundancy, scalability, and system resilience while enforcing best coding practices and security protocols.

• Influence and Lead by Example: Mentor engineers, guide technical direction, and set high standards for the team, pushing for quality results without direct management responsibilities.

• Strategic Thinking: Align technical work with long-term business goals, evaluating build vs. buy decisions, investigating external vendors, and working closely with AWS or other cloud platforms to ensure scalable and cost-efficient solutions.

• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Work with product managers, data scientists, and non-technical stakeholders to prioritize and deliver projects that meet both technical and business needs. Provide visibility into technical progress and translate complex concepts into actionable insights.

• Cross-Domain Problem Solving: Tackle complex challenges across multiple teams, proactively optimizing systems, and solving critical issues that balance technical and business constraints.

Who you are
The Staff Engineer will thrive if they demonstrate autonomy, ownership, and flexibility in a fast-paced environment, and bring:

• Technical Mastery: Deep expertise in your domain and a broad understanding of adjacent fields, enabling sound architectural decisions and solutions to complex challenges.

• Strategic Vision: You think long-term, aligning technical decisions with business goals, and ensuring solutions are scalable and future-proof.

• Influence and Mentorship: You guide technical discussions, mentor engineers, and elevate the performance of those around you.

• Communication and Collaboration: You excel at translating technical details into business impacts and work seamlessly with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Problem-Solving Prowess: You solve complex problems with practical solutions that balance technical and business needs.

• Resilience and Adaptability: You thrive in a fast-paced environment and maintain high-quality output amid changing priorities.

• (Bonus) Domain Expertise: Relevant domain knowledge helps you make informed decisions and address industry-specific challenges.

What we're looking for from you

• 5+ years as a senior software engineer

• 2+ years in a technical leadership or staff engineer role, delivering scalable, high-quality solutions.

• Strong expertise in backend development, system design, and architecture, with experience guiding complex technical decisions.

• Experience with public cloud technologies (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) is a plus.

• Excellent communication skills, able to translate technical concepts into business impacts.

• Proven experience mentoring engineers and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

• Proactive problem-solver, with a passion for driving innovation aligned with business goals.

Our Tech Stack

• Java 21 μServices

• Spring Boot with Spring Cloud

• Dynamo DB

• Terraform

• Docker

• AWS Fargate

• Event Sourcing

Perks of the job

• Flexible working: Spend 3 days a week with your team in our new collaborative London office.

• Sabbatical Leave - Get a 4-week fully paid sabbatical after being with us for 4 years 🌴

• Work From Anywhere - 4 weeks of work from anywhere to use, with no need to come to the office 🛫

• Competitive bonus scheme - designed to reward and recognise high performance 🌟

• Flexible benefits budget - £50 per month to spend on a Ben Mastercard meaning you get your own benefits budget to spend on things you want. Whether that’s subscriptions, night classes (puppy yoga, anyone?), the big shop or a forest of houseplants. Pretty much anything goes. 💰

• Learning and development – Personal budgets for books and training courses to help you grow in your role. Plus 2 days a year - on us! - to further your skillset 🤓

• Mental wellbeing support – Access therapy and mental health sessions through Oliva 💚

• Private health care - Enjoy all the benefits Vitality has to offer, including reduced gym memberships and discounts on smartwatches 🏥

• Medical cash plan - To help you with the costs of dental, optical and physio (plus more!)

• Tech scheme - Get the latest tech for less 🖥

Our process

We break it up into 4 stages:

• Initial call with our Tech Talent Acquisition Partner  (30- 45 mins)

• A past experience interview where you will discuss your previous experience with one of our Engineering Managers (1.5 hours)

• An interview with one of our Tech Leads to discuss your understanding of technology and your ways of working with the team (1 hour)

• A culture interview with one of our senior leadership team to understand that your work style fits our processes and values (1 hour)
  
  We’ll let you know if you’re invited to an interview or not. But, as a small team with a lot of applications to consider, we can’t give individual feedback on each application

Everyone belongs at Marshmallow

At Marshmallow, we want to hire people from all walks of life with the passion and skills needed to help us achieve our company mission. To do that, we're committed to hiring without judgement, prejudice or bias.

We encourage everyone to apply for our open roles. Gender identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or background does not affect how we process job applications.

We're working hard to build an inclusive culture that empowers our people to do their best work, have fun and feel that they belong.

Recruitment privacy policy

We take privacy seriously here at Marshmallow. Our Recruitment privacy notice explains how we process and handle your personal data. To find out more please view it here.