Remote and hybrid work arrangements are a great way to circumvent local talent shortages and lower your infrastructure and hiring costs.

What’s even better, engineers seem to enjoy working from home as well. But building powerful tech whilst managing a distributed fintech engineering team takes skill.

In its 2022 State of Remote Engineering report, talent management company Terminal notes that seven out of ten developers work remotely 80 to 100% of the time, and over half would like to keep it that way. Commonly cited reasons include a better work-life balance, lower stress levels, and higher autonomy and productivity.

Courtesy of Terminal

That said, managing a distributed fintech engineering team isn’t without its challenges. 

At Unitek, we know this all too well. We have an all-star team of fully remote developers working resolutely on our no-code automation platform. Over the years, we’ve compiled a long list of management dos and don’ts.

A CTO’s Top Tips for Managing a Remote Fintech Developer Team in 2022

Recently, Kevin Mullins, Unitek's Senior Marketing Manager sat down with Dhanya Jayachandra, Unitek's co-founder and CTO to discuss her top tips for managing a distributed fintech engineering team. Here are some of her insights about the benefits and challenges:

5 Tips For Managing a Distributed Team

1. Search for Technical Know-How but Hire for Cultural Fit

There are many talented developers out there. However, creating industry-leading products takes more than top-notch engineering skills and relevant experience. 

To set your remote team up for success, you should also look for engineers who’d make a good fit for your company’s culture. This way, the whole team would look forward to showing up and doing the work, day in and day out.

2. Unify Your Team to Build Better Tech

A fully remote team can’t gather on a Friday for a beer after work or chit-chat around the water cooler during lunch breaks. This makes it hard to build and sustain meaningful interpersonal relationships and team engagement. 

To make up for that, you should bring people together intentionally. Scheduled remote office parties and get-togethers are a great and fun way to create a sense of team.

3. Don’t Forget the Fine Print 

When it comes to things like customer data, regulatory compliance, or IP security, there’s no room for error or frugality. Managing a distributed fintech engineering team requires airtight legal contracts to cover you, the developers, your customers, and your products. 

4. Draw Bright Lines Around Data Access

An important corollary of the previous section is that you need clear, permission-based policies around access, escalation, and location. At Unitek, for example, our data science is strictly restricted to Ireland. The data not only resides exclusively in Ireland but isn’t even accessible outside the country.

5. Synchronise Your Watches

When opting to go remote, try to hire in the same or similar time zones. Matching time zones makes it easier to get quick responses, hop on calls and virtual meetings, and collaborate more effectively throughout the day.

Courtesy of McKinsey

Our Distributed Teams Are Crushing It. Request a Demo To See What They're Building.

Good management, a stellar engineering team, and a supportive and inclusive company culture create best-in-class software. Case in point: Unitek’s Automaton Experience Platform.

Request a personalised free demo to see our automation in action.