Research And Development Manager

One of our clients, a Fintech company, is seeking an R&D Manager to lead the development of a mission-critical Fintech SaaS platform operating in a regulated, production-grade environment.

This is a senior technical leadership role combining people leadership, architectural ownership, and hands-on engineering.

The role places strong emphasis on integrating AI assistant capabilities into real engineering workflows, not as experimentation, but as a core part of how software is designed, built, reviewed, tested, documented, and maintained in production.

The ideal candidate understands that AI is not only a productivity accelerator, but a strategic tool for improving engineering quality, consistency, reliability, auditability, and long-term maintainability, especially in complex financial systems where correctness, traceability, and control are critical.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a software engineering team of approximately 5 engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Take full ownership of system architecture and technical direction, including technology choices, architectural patterns, and long-term evolution of the platform
• Define and enforce engineering standards and best practices suitable for financial systems, with a strong focus on reliability, security, and maintainability
• Integrate AI-assisted development tools across the full software development lifecycle, including:
• System and API design
• Code generation and implementation
• Code review and quality assurance
• Automated testing and validation
• Documentation and knowledge sharing
• Ongoing maintenance and refactoring
• Design AI-assisted workflows that explicitly support accuracy, traceability, auditability, and regulatory compliance, rather than undermining them
• Ensure high levels of system reliability, data integrity, and security, while maintaining disciplined control over technical debt
• Work closely with Product, Compliance, Security, and DevOps stakeholders to align engineering execution with business, regulatory, and operational requirements
• Drive predictable delivery, scalability, and operational robustness of a backend-heavy, distributed, data-intensive system
• Remain hands-on with the codebase, contributing production-quality code and serving as a technical reference point for the team

Requirements

• Proven experience managing and leading software engineering teams in SaaS and/or Fintech environments
• Strong hands-on background in backend or platform engineering, with the ability to design, implement, and review complex systems
• Demonstrated, practical experience introducing and operating AI-assisted development tools in real-world, production systems (not only prototypes or personal use)
• Experience working in or leading AI-first or AI-native engineering environments, where AI tools are embedded into everyday development practices
• Solid experience with distributed systems, third-party integrations, and data-intensive platforms
• Ability to define clear engineering processes, standards, and governance models, and to ensure consistent adoption across the team

Nice to Have

• Direct experience building or scaling Fintech platforms that handle sensitive financial data
• Familiarity with specification-driven or design-first development methodologies
• Experience operating in regulated environments such as payments, banking, or compliance-heavy domains
• Hands-on experience with .NET and/or Node.js ecosystems
• Experience working with Cursor or similar AI-powered development environments

Ramat Gan - 2-3 Days from home