Head of R&D/Engineering Leader, Moldova (International Fintech Company)

As part of this initiative, we are looking for an experienced Head of R&D who will lead and scale an offshore engineering organization.

This is a senior, hands-on leadership role responsible for delivery, architecture, technical quality and people management across backend, frontend, mobile and QA teams.

The role involves close collaboration with the CTO and leadership team to execute product strategy, modernize legacy systems, introduce AI-driven capabilities, and ensure the platform scales securely and reliably within a regulated fintech environment.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Leadership and Delivery

• Lead, mentor, and scale cross-functional engineering teams including:
  - Backend engineers (PHP, NestJS)
  - Frontend engineers (PHP, React)
  - Mobile engineers (Flutter)
• - QA engineers
• Own end-to-end delivery of product and platform initiatives, from requirements and estimation through development, testing, release, and post-production support.
• Translate business and regulatory requirements into technical execution plans and delivery milestones.
• Establish predictable delivery processes using Agile methodologies and data-driven planning.

Architecture and Technical Ownership

• Act as the technical authority for the offshore R&D organization, providing architectural direction and hands-on technical leadership.
• Drive the evolution of a microservices-based architecture with clear service boundaries, APIs, and ownership.
• Lead large-scale refactoring and modernization of legacy systems while balancing risk, performance, and business continuity.
• Ensure systems are designed for scalability, resilience, security, and observability.
• Review and guide technical designs, pull requests, and key architectural decisions.

Platform, Infrastructure, and Reliability

• Oversee systems running on AWS, ensuring best practices for availability, performance, and cost efficiency.
• Work with teams on Kubernetes-based deployments, containerization, and cloud-native patterns.
• Improve CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and release strategies.
• Establish operational standards including monitoring, alerting, incident response, and postmortems.

Innovation and AI Enablement

• Identify opportunities to integrate AI capabilities into products and internal engineering workflows.
• Lead initiatives involving AI-powered automation, analytics, risk detection, or customer-facing features.
• Encourage innovation and experimentation while maintaining production stability, security, and compliance.

People and Culture

• Build a strong engineering culture focused on ownership, accountability, quality, and continuous improvement.
• Hire, onboard, mentor, and retain top engineering talent.
• Develop senior engineers and team leads, supporting career growth and succession planning.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and feedback cycles.

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Work closely with the CTO, product, compliance, and business stakeholders.
• Communicate technical trade-offs, risks, and timelines clearly to non-technical leadership.
• Support company management in strategic planning and execution.

Tech Environment

• Backend: PHP, NestJS
• Frontend: PHP, React
• Mobile: Flutter
• Databases: MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL
• Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes (K8S)
• Architecture: Microservices, APIs, distributed systems

Required Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Development Manager, Engineering Manager, or Head of R&D leading production systems.
• Hands-on management experience with teams of 10+ engineers, including backend, frontend, mobile, and QA.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, design patterns, and distributed systems.
• Deep experience with modern development practices including CI/CD, automated testing, code reviews, and Agile delivery.
• Solid technical background with the ability to review code and guide architectural decisions.
• Experience operating and scaling production systems on AWS.
• Proven experience leading legacy system refactoring and modernization initiatives.
• Excellent communication skills and experience working directly with executives and senior management.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience in fintech, including payments, wallets, banking, trading, or regulated financial systems.
• Crypto / blockchain experience, including wallet infrastructure, transaction processing, on-chain data, blockchain APIs, or Web3 platforms.
• Experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure.
• Experience integrating AI capabilities into production systems or engineering workflows.
• Experience building or scaling new development sites or offshore engineering teams.

If you are interested in this opportunity or know a professional who could be a strong fit for this role, please send your CV and contact details to: dopomogamoldova@gmail.com or call us: +37378808500

Our recruitment team will contact shortlisted candidates with additional details.