Senior Tax Platform Engineer – Corporate Technology

About Us The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide. At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Together, we help audiences stay better informed and deepen their understanding of the world around them. Our Product & Tech teams drive us forward in an ever-evolving digital landscape, delivering cutting-edge products to over one million digital subscribers daily. Our growth relies on a diverse, dedicated and dynamic group of product, tech, delivery and data specialists. With a supportive culture, entrepreneurial spirit and opportunities at every turn, there are no limits to where your FT career can take you. Build a newsworthy career at the FT. Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups. About you You are an experienced engineer with strong technical expertise in enterprise tax, compliance or closely related financial technology platforms. You are comfortable taking technical ownership of specialist, business-critical technology: understanding how platforms work, how they integrate with the wider enterprise technology estate and how regulatory and operational requirements translate into sustainable technical solutions. You enjoy getting into the detail of complex systems and solving problems that require both technical depth and an understanding of the business processes the technology supports. You can work directly with Tax, Finance and other business specialists, asking the right questions and translating their requirements into clear technical decisions and solutions. You are also comfortable providing technical leadership without needing formal management responsibility. You can guide other engineers, challenge vendors and technology partners, improve engineering practices and build knowledge across a team rather than becoming the only person who understands a specialist platform. About the team Corporate Technology sits within Internal Products and owns the technology capabilities supporting some of the FT’s most important internal business functions, including People, Finance and Procurement. The domain includes major enterprise platforms alongside specialist applications, integrations, data flows and internally developed capabilities supporting critical business processes across the organisation. Tax and Compliance technology is a specialist part of this landscape. These platforms and capabilities support important regulatory and operational obligations and interact with the wider Finance and ERP technology estate. The Senior Tax Platform Engineer will provide dedicated engineering expertise and technical leadership for this area, working with the Engineering Lead, Principal Engineer – Corporate Technology, other engineers and business specialists to strengthen our internal ownership and capability. What you’ll work on As Senior Tax Platform Engineer , you will provide technical leadership for the platforms and capabilities supporting Tax and Compliance across the FT. You will develop a deep understanding of the technology, integrations, data flows and business processes within this area and become a key technical point of expertise for the engineering team. You will work closely with Tax, Finance and Compliance stakeholders to understand regulatory and operational requirements and translate them into effective technical solutions, ensuring the platforms can evolve as requirements change. This role is about more than supporting specialist applications. You will help establish stronger technical ownership of the Tax and Compliance technology estate, improve its reliability and maintainability, identify risks and opportunities for improvement, and ensure changes are engineered with the wider Corporate Technology landscape in mind. An important part of the role will also be building capability around you. You will document systems and decisions, share knowledge with other engineers and help reduce dependency on business stakeholders, external partners or individual engineers for understanding how the technology works. Your responsibilities will include Tax & Compliance Platform Engineering Providing technical leadership for the platforms and technology capabilities supporting Tax and Compliance. Developing and maintaining deep technical knowledge of the platforms, their configuration, integrations, data flows and dependencies. Designing, implementing and supporting changes to specialist Tax and Compliance technology. Ensuring platforms remain secure, resilient, maintainable and appropriately supported. Investigating complex technical and operational issues and driving them through to sustainable resolution. Identifying technical debt, lifecycle concerns and platform risks and working with engineering leadership to address them. Contributing directly to engineering work where specialist knowledge or technical complexity requires senior-level involvement. Technical Leadership & Engineering Quality Acting as a senior technical specialist within the Corporate Technology engineering team for Tax and Compliance technology. Providing technical direction and guidance to engineers working on changes affecting these platforms. Reviewing technical designs and changes and helping teams make appropriate engineering decisions. Establishing appropriate engineering practices, patterns and documentation for specialist platforms. Working with the Principal Engineer, Engineering Leads and Architecture on decisions that have implications beyond the Tax and Compliance domain. Ensuring solutions consider security, resilience, observability, maintainability, supportability and long-term sustainability. Challenging approaches that introduce unnecessary complexity or operational risk. Regulatory & Business Requirements Working closely with Tax, Finance and Compliance specialists to understand regulatory, operational and business requirements. Translating those requirements into clear technical requirements, designs and platform changes. Helping engineering teams understand the business context and implications of changes to Tax and Compliance technology. Ensuring technology changes required by regulatory or compliance deadlines are understood, planned and delivered appropriately. Identifying technical dependencies and risks early and communicating these clearly to engineering and business stakeholders. Maintaining a clear separation between business ownership of tax and regulatory policy and engineering ownership of the technology that implements those requirements. Integration & Data Understanding and maintaining the integrations and data flows between Tax and Compliance platforms and the wider Finance and enterprise technology estate. Working with integration, data and platform engineers to ensure interfaces have clear ownership and are designed and operated effectively. Identifying opportunities to simplify integrations, reduce duplication and improve reliability. Supporting changes to upstream and downstream systems where they affect Tax and Compliance capabilities. Ensuring data movement and system interactions meet relevant security, control and operational requirements. Platform Operations & Reliability Supporting the reliable operation of Tax and Compliance platforms and services. Providing senior technical expertise during complex incidents and problems. Identifying recurring issues and addressing their underlying technical causes rather than relying on repeated operational workarounds. Improving monitoring, observability, documentation and operational readiness. Supporting appropriate approaches to change management, disaster recovery and business continuity. Maintaining visibility of platform health, risks and dependencies and escalating material concerns appropriately. Vendors & Technology Partners Working effectively with specialist platform vendors, implementation partners and support providers. Providing informed technical challenge to vendor recommendations and proposed solutions. Ensuring vendor-delivered changes meet FT engineering, security and operational expectations. Building sufficient internal expertise to ensure vendors supplement rather than replace FT’s technical ownership of the platforms. Supporting technical evaluation of platform changes, upgrades and vendor roadmap decisions. Knowledge & Capability Development Building and maintaining high-quality technical documentation for Tax and Compliance platforms, integrations and operational processes. Sharing specialist knowledge with engineers across Corporate Technology. Mentoring engineers working with Tax and Compliance technology and helping them build confidence and capability in the area. Reducing key-person dependencies by ensuring knowledge is accessible and understood beyond a single specialist. Helping establish sustainable long-term ownership of Tax and Compliance technology within Corporate Technology. Technical experience we’re looking for Significant engineering experience working with enterprise financial, tax, compliance, ERP or similarly complex business-critical platforms. Strong experience taking technical ownership of specialist enterprise applications or platform capabilities. Experience designing, implementing, integrating and supporting enterprise technology in production environments. Good understanding of enterprise integration approaches, APIs, data flows and system dependencies. Experience translating complex business, regulatory or operational requirements into technical solutions. Experience investigating and resolving complex problems across applications, integrations and data. Strong understanding of production engineering, including reliability, monitoring, security, change management and operational support. Experience working with enterprise SaaS products and their wider technology ecosystems. Experience working with third-party platform vendors, implementation partners or managed service providers. Ability to assess vendor solutions and recommendations critically rather than relying solely on external expertise. Experience providing technical leadership, mentoring engineers or leading technical decisions without necessarily having formal people-management responsibility. Ability to communicate effectively with both engineers and specialist non-technical stakeholders. Experience building technical documentation and transferring specialist knowledge across engineering teams. Experience with Tax and Compliance technology would be highly advantageous. Experience with ERP platforms such as Oracle Fusion or similar enterprise Finance ecosystems would be advantageous. Experience working in environments with significant regulatory, financial or compliance requirements would be advantageous. Characteristics we value Strong technical curiosity and a willingness to develop deep expertise in specialist technology. A strong sense of ownership and accountability. Pragmatism and good judgement when balancing regulatory, business and engineering requirements. The ability to work comfortably between detailed engineering problems and the wider technology landscape. Confidence challenging vendors, technical colleagues and stakeholders constructively. A collaborative approach to working with business domain specialists. A focus on solving underlying problems rather than repeatedly treating symptoms. An instinct for documenting and sharing knowledge rather than becoming a single point of dependency. An appreciation for reliability, simplicity and long-term technical sustainability. A genuine interest in helping other engineers develop their knowledge and capability. What’s in it for you? Our benefits Our benefits vary by location, but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices. These include generous annual leave, medical cover, inclusive parental leave packages, subsidised gym memberships and opportunities to give back to the community. Full details of our benefits are available on the FT Careers website. We’ve embraced a 50% hybrid working model (averaging two to three days onsite) that fosters trust and remote adaptability while encouraging in-person camaraderie and peer learning. Additionally, we are open to accommodating specific flexible working pattern requests for all roles where feasible. Accessibility We are a disability confident employer and Valuable 500 signatory. Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments/personalisation as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, email [email protected] and a member of our team will be happy to help. Further information At the FT, we embrace innovation and the use of technology and appreciate that individuals may leverage AI tools as part of their job application process. Whilst we are happy for you to use AI to assist with your application, it is essential that all information provided is authentic and accurately represents your skills, experience, and qualifications.