---
title: 'Principal Backend Engineer at Teya'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-backend-engineer-teya-riga-08fv6b93jg53'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-06'
---

# Principal Backend Engineer at Teya

- **Company:** [Teya](https://feeny.ai/companies/teya)
- **Location:** Riga, Latvia
- **Compensation:** €6k–€9k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-04-17
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/teya/919359c2-ff44-44f6-b3f5-d9baa1b10a8b/application

**Skills:** Java, Spring Boot, Kotlin, Microservices, Event-driven architecture, Kafka, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, System design, Observability, Financial technology systems, Transaction-heavy environment systems

> Design and build resilient, scalable fintech infrastructure for payments and merchant onboarding. Drive architectural strategy for high-volume transaction processing, cloud-native systems, and event-driven domains while mentoring teams and ensuring compliance and security.

## Job description

Hello. We’re Teya.

Teya was founded on a simple belief: local businesses deserve better.

They are the cafés, restaurants, salons, shops and entrepreneurs that bring character to our high streets, create jobs and keep communities moving. Yet for too long, financial services has made life harder for them - with clunky tools, poor support and complexity that gets in the way of running a business.

Teya exists to change that.

We’re building a financial platform for local businesses across Europe - one built around simple tools, thoughtful design and real human support. Our Members rely on us to help them run their business with confidence, and that responsibility shapes the way we work.

We move fast. We care about quality. We stay close to the detail. And we believe great performance and genuine hospitality should go hand in hand.

If you want to build meaningful products, solve real problems and make a genuine difference for local businesses, we’d love to hear from you

## YOUR MISSION

Small businesses are the backbone of our communities — yet they remain underserved by traditional banks and legacy payment providers. As a Principal Backend Engineer, you will play a defining role in changing that.

Your mission is to design and build the resilient, scalable fintech infrastructure that underpins our most critical business initiatives. This isn’t about owning a single service — it’s about owning outcomes. You will drive the technical success of the platforms that power payments, merchant onboarding, transaction processing, and operational workflows across Europe.

You’ll operate at the intersection of engineering and business strategy, shaping systems that must be secure, compliant, highly available, and capable of scaling with rapid growth. The decisions you make will directly influence how quickly we can launch new products, enter new markets, and serve thousands of merchants.

This role goes beyond technical leadership. You will define and evolve the architectural foundations that multiple teams depend on, bringing clarity to ambiguity and ensuring our most important initiatives succeed.

## WHAT YOU’LL DO

- Own and drive the architecture behind our most critical platforms, ensuring they scale with the business and unlock new capabilities
- Design and evolve high-scale, cloud-native systems powering payments and merchant experiences
- Lead the development of resilient, secure, and compliant services for high-volume transaction processing
- Shape and drive adoption of modern backend practices (Java 17/21, Spring Boot 3, Kotlin, clean architecture)
- Architect event-driven systems (Kafka) that enable scalable, decoupled domains across teams
- Define and enforce standards for API-first development (REST/gRPC) and domain-driven design (DDD)
- Set the bar for availability, performance, fault tolerance, and observability across critical systems
- Partner deeply with Product, Data, and leadership to translate business priorities into scalable technical strategy
- Lead cross-organisational initiatives that are essential to company growth and market expansion
- Influence engineering direction through hands-on contribution, design leadership, and mentorship
- Bring structure to ambiguity across technical, regulatory, and operational domains

## WHAT YOU BRING

- 8+ years of experience building and operating distributed, production-grade backend systems
- Proven track record operating at Senior Staff or Principal level, driving architecture across multiple teams or domains
- Deep expertise in Java (17+), Spring Boot, and modern backend engineering practices
- Strong experience with microservices, event-driven architecture, and asynchronous systems
- Experience building systems for high throughput, low latency, and reliability, ideally in fintech or transaction-heavy environments
- Strong grounding in system design, data structures, and performance trade-offs
- Hands-on experience with AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes in production environments
- Proven ability to implement observability, resilience patterns, and CI/CD best practices
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence and align stakeholders
- A track record of mentoring senior engineers and leading through ambiguity

The Perks

- We trust you, so we offer flexible working hours, as long it suits both you and your team;
- Health Insurance;
- Physical and mental health support through our partnership with MyFitness;
- 25 days of Annual leave (+ Bank Holidays);
- Possibility to visit other Teya offices to meet colleagues in instances when travel is safe and appropriate;
- Friday lunch in the office;
- Friendly, comfortable and high-end work equipment and informal office environment;
- Hybrid work mode policy.

Teya is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or background can thrive and do their best work. We believe that a diverse team leads to better ideas, stronger outcomes, and a more supportive workplace for all.

If you require any reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process whether for interviews, assessments, or other parts of the application—we encourage you to let us know. We are committed to ensuring that every candidate has a fair and accessible experience with us.

## About Teya

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Teya provides integrated payment processing, business accounts, and funding solutions to help small, local businesses across Europe manage, grow, and thrive.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series Unknown; $1.1B in total funding)
- **Headquarters**: London, United Kingdom
- **Founded**: 2019
- **Founders**: Not publicly available (formerly known as SaltPay)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Financial Services, Fintech, Payment Processing
- **Target customers**: Small and local businesses (B2B, SMB)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Proud to serve small, local businesses" — Teya exists to make business smoother, simpler, and more rewarding for the people who keep communities alive.

## Products & Services
- **Card Machines & Terminals**: In-person payment terminals with industry-leading transaction speeds, lifetime warranty (covering theft and water damage), and integration with 50+ EPOS systems.
- **Teya Tap**: A software point-of-sale solution that turns a smartphone into a card machine, enabling contactless payments via Apple Pay, Google Pay, and major cards.
- **Teya Business Account**: A free e-money business account with no account fees, domestic transfers, direct debit setup, a debit card with 0.5% cashback on all spending, and instant settlement options.
- **Pay by Link**: A remote payment solution allowing businesses to send payment links to customers.
- **Cash Advance**: Flexible, transparent funding for businesses, repaid directly from card machine sales.
- **Teya App & Web Portal**: Real-time sales tracking, expense management, and transaction monitoring tools.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$1.1B** across 4 rounds; Annual Revenue estimated at **$100M** [linkedin.com](https://uk.linkedin.com/company/teya-global)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly detailed, but the company has raised $1.1B in total funding [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/teya)
- **Growth Signals**: Over **75,000 active members**; processed over **609 million transactions** in 2025; provided over **£68 million in cash advances**; operates in **27 countries** across Europe; employs **~1,000 people** total with **400+ in Product & Tech** [teya.com](https://www.teya.com/) [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/teya)

## Competitive Advantages
- **All-in-one platform**: Combines card machines, a business account, cash advances, and expense management in a single, integrated solution — reducing the need for multiple vendors.
- **Fair and transparent pricing**: No hidden fees, simple rates, and a free business account with 0.5% unlimited cashback.
- **Lifetime warranty on hardware**: Covers theft and water damage, a strong differentiator in the physical terminal market.
- **Speed and reliability**: Industry-leading transaction speeds and instant settlement options.
- **Deep focus on small, local businesses**: A clear, mission-driven niche that differentiates them from generalist fintechs and large banks.

## Strategic Focus
- **European expansion**: Already operating in 27 countries, Teya is focused on deepening its presence across Europe.
- **Product ecosystem growth**: Moving beyond payments into a full suite of business management tools (business accounts, cash advances, expense tracking, EPOS integrations).
- **Customer-centric innovation**: Building features like instant settlements, tipping, split payments, and integrated calculators directly requested by small business owners.
- **Talent acquisition**: Actively hiring across Sales, Engineering, Product, Data, and Operations to scale the platform and customer base.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: Teya is deeply focused on supporting small, local businesses, which gives employees a strong sense of purpose.
- **Hybrid work model**: Encourages at least three days a week in the office to foster collaboration, with flexibility to work from home [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/teya).
- **Global, diverse team**: 1,000 total employees across 15+ offices in 27 countries, including London, Lisbon, Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, Reykjavik, Porto, and Braga [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/teya).
- **Strong engineering culture**: 400+ Product & Tech employees; technology stack includes modern tools; hosts Lunch and Learns and supports employee-driven initiatives [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/teya).
- **Perks and benefits**: Pension plan, paid holidays, free snacks and drinks, quarterly engagement surveys, promotion from within, and resources for team camaraderie [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/teya).
- **Work environment**: Hybrid model (3 days in-office per week); offices in London, Bratislava, Lisbon, Budapest, Prague, Reykjavik, Porto, Braga, and more [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/teya).

## Sources
1. [teya.com](https://www.teya.com/)
2. [teya.com/careers](https://www.teya.com/careers)
3. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/teya)
4. [linkedin.com](https://uk.linkedin.com/company/teya-global)
5. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/teya)

## Other roles at Teya

- [Field Sales Consultant (Self-employed)](https://feeny.ai/job/field-sales-consultant-self-employed-teya-leeds-a5xhp72vywb5) — Leeds, United Kingdom
- [Field Sales Consultant (Self-employed)](https://feeny.ai/job/field-sales-consultant-self-employed-teya-liverpool-d1gkn3w12z5y) — Liverpool, United Kingdom
- [Field Sales Consultant (Self-employed)](https://feeny.ai/job/field-sales-consultant-self-employed-teya-blackpool-zmv6a8w51d2k) — Blackpool, United Kingdom
- [Field Sales Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/field-sales-specialist-teya-milan-8jbtce92j5yx) — Milan, Italy
- [Field Sales Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/field-sales-specialist-teya-monza-t7cmrwxs6dhp) — Monza, Italy
- [People Partner](https://feeny.ai/job/people-partner-teya-london-z85mzkx93405) — London, United Kingdom
- [Field Sales Consultant (Self-employed)](https://feeny.ai/job/field-sales-consultant-self-employed-teya-london-8e77efmrwm23) — London, United Kingdom
- [Business Development Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-executive-teya-osijek-wyca08r8gb7p) — Osijek, Croatia
- [Growth Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-lead-teya-london-60bkga7mk68z) — London, United Kingdom
- [Field Sales Consultant (Payments)](https://feeny.ai/job/field-sales-consultant-payments-teya-plymouth-qw4sn89dce3q) — Plymouth, United Kingdom