Stripe’s UK engineering chief talks ‘women in fintech’

Emma Gunby-Burrows is Stripe’s head of engineering in the UK. She leads Stripe’s Fintech Development Office in London and leads engineering teams that develop local payment method products and build out Stripe’s financial infrastructure.

Before joining Stripe, she led the product, engineering and design teams at Charlotte Tilbury, and spent eight years at Google in various roles, including product manager, technical lead and engineering manager. A keen runner, she juggles this role alongside looking after her two-year-old son. We caught up with her to find out more.

Tell us about your journey into fintech. Is there a story there?

It’s funny, I didn’t have a natural affinity for fintech before I joined Stripe. I started in engineering roles at Google and beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury, and Stripe was the first fintech company I worked at. I was initially attracted by the great company culture, the chance to build products for customers who are developers themselves, and the fact that engineering and technology are at the heart of Stripe. But London is such a brilliant fintech hub, so I was excited about the opportunity to work in this industry and knew I wanted to stay for a long time.

Describe your role – what are your responsibilities?

On a day-to-day basis, I manage around 100 engineers across London, Seattle, Dublin and San Francisco working to make non-card payment methods available to businesses – from iDEAL and Cartes Bancaires, to Klarna and Paypal.

People have very different payment preferences around the world, and 86% will abandon their cart if their preferred payment method isn’t available. By making these available, we help the businesses that operate on Stripe to be locally relevant and make more money abroad, which is even more important in these tougher times.

As well as leading these teams, I am also the CTO of Stripe UK, which involves ensuring we have a regional strategy, reviewing our financial position, ensuring we have the right governance and strengthening Stripe’s relationships in London and the UK.

What challenges have been memorable in your role at Stripe?

Stripe has grown from about 1,000 to 7,000 people since I joined, so we’ve had to find ways to preserve our culture and run engineering teams consistently around the world. When I joined, I was the first engineer in London. As we’ve grown the team, we’ve built our own identity, both in London and in Dublin’s engineering hub. And the backdrop to all of this has been Brexit, which created some interesting technical challenges, followed by a global pandemic and now a downturn. There hasn’t really been a quiet moment!

How has your experience been so far as a woman working in fintech?

Really rewarding – although I think your experience is shaped more by the company you work for than the industry you’re in. The main factor is the company culture that the founders create. At Stripe, people are incredibly thoughtful and thoughtful, which is one of the things I love about working here. We are encouraged to be humble, to prioritize thinking rigorously, and to operate with energy and warmth. All this helps to create a welcoming environment for everyone, including women. We still have a long way to go to improve female representation in technical roles in the fintech industry, but it’s important to me that I don’t feel like I’m in every meeting at a male senior level anymore.

If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

There is a lot of power in optimism. One of Stripe’s operating principles is about being macro-optimistic while maintaining a high level of rigor. I’m a natural pessimist, and wouldn’t say I’ve nailed this one yet, but combining critical thinking with an innate level of belief (in yourself, your team, your company) is very powerful. It can also lead to more of a philosophy of not taking things so seriously – I feel like I spent a lot of time when I was younger worrying about things that resolve themselves over time, and I talk to a lot of young women who seem to the same. You can’t sweat too much!

What actions can companies take to attract more young women into the financial/tech space?

Companies have improved their recruitment and interview processes, but there is still a long way to go. There are many different paths that can lead someone to a career in technology, and I would like to see companies be more open about differences in experience. A typical interview question for computer science algorithms doesn’t always help you understand whether someone would make a good software developer.

Fintech companies could also be much better at talking about benefits they offer for women, such as maternity leave. Before I moved to Stripe, I found it very difficult to get maternity insurance information from companies I was considering moving to, but they could have made a difference.

Finally, many companies in our industry have compelling missions that they can get all candidates – including women – excited about. Stripe’s mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and in doing so open up economic opportunity for everyone, something that really resonated with me.

Describe yourself in three words

Pragmatic. Feisty. Nerdy.

What inspires you in fintech today?

For a fintech nerd like me, regulation. It’s not often that people find it inspiring, but it changes market dynamics and creates many new opportunities. Something like Open Banking has the potential to change everything about the payments industry, creating many new business models.