LDMS Graduate Programme: Building the Fintech Leaders of Tomorrow

A Q&A Feature by FinTech Wales

LDMS shares how their graduate programme is helping shape the next generation of Welsh fintech talent, while driving growth and innovation across the business.

Introducing LDMS

Introducing LDMS  LDMS is a financial services software company based in Cardiff, established in 2018 as a spin-out from Link Financial Group, one of Europe’s leading servicers of consumer, SME and leasing credit.

LDMS provides powerful software for managing multiple forms of credit, loans, asset finance, mortgages and more. Since launch, LDMS has grown from a 20-person team to nearly 100 employees, now supporting the systems which serve over 7 million customers in 10 countries in companies which manage more than £65 billion in assets.  

Their mission is to deliver world-class, end-to-end credit management software that helps financial institutions operate more efficiently — and pass those benefits on to customers

Q&A: How LDMS Builds Future Fintech Leaders

Can you provide a brief introduction to LDMS?

Chris Whitcombe, Managing Director & CIO at LDMS: We provide software for the management of multiple forms of loans, credit and asset finance. Our software has powered the Group’s growth over the past 25 years, and in 2018 we saw an opportunity to set up a company dedicated to developing the software. As we continue to grow, our goal is to help deliver world-leading, end-to-end software to allow companies to manage multiple forms of credit, loans, asset finance, mortgages, auto finance and more.

What role does LDMS play in the fintech sector?

Chris Whitcombe: Lending, in all its forms, is a cornerstone of the financial ecosystem and economy as a whole. Providing software that streamlines and manages this process from start to finish is a huge benefit to all involved. To financial institutions, the gains made through efficiency allow them to increase margins, often meaning products that were previously not commercially viable can be brought to market. The increase in efficiency can be passed on to customers through better rates, discounts or improved financial products due to the lower cost and overheads of delivering those products. Lending really is at the heart of the global financial system.

Why is investing in early careers important to LDMS?

Chris Whitcombe: I’m really pleased to say that over the past seven years since we created LDMS, many of our team members have grown and developed with us. The graduates of 2018 are the leaders of 2025 – a testament to our culture of growth. However, this also creates a gap when it comes to today’s graduates and junior team members. That’s why the investment in early careers is so important to LDMS, the people joining our team today will be the leaders of the company in the future. As we continue to grow and develop our staff and our company, it’s vital that we keep working with universities and educators to build the experts of tomorrow.

Approach to Early Careers Development

How does LDMS engage with Welsh universities and students?

Chris Whitcombe: Throughout the year, we have a variety of different touchpoints with local universities and students. We attend a number of career fairs, engage with students in their final year presentation and guest speak at lectures and so on. We also work with Fintech Wales on a variety of graduate engagement events across South Wales.

Why is hiring graduates a key part of your talent strategy?

Whitcombe: Due to the complex nature of our work at LDMS – particularly the breadth of our product offering and the deep domain knowledge required to manage loans and debts right through their lifecycle – we’re better positioned to develop our own talent internally. By focusing on the growth and development of our employees, we can build the expertise we need more efficiently than by hiring senior engineers externally. This in turn, creates opportunities for growth at all levels, with mentoring possibilities in all of our teams due to our commitment to “learn by doing”. By feeding our workforce from the bottom up, we also create a constant succession plan and opportunities for career progression.

What support and training do you offer early career professionals?

Chris Whitcombe: For the first three months we have a specific full-time mentor assigned to the graduate scheme with the aim of getting them up to speed with our job-specific basic skills, readying them for working directly within our development teams.

Paul Wigham, Senior Engineer at LDMS: The most recent cohort of Graduates started at the beginning of the year. On day 1 they went directly into a classroom-style setup with the equipment and tooling ready to start learning some of the languages used by the engineering team at LDMS. The language training was done from the ground up to ensure everyone reached the same level of understanding.   

The training style is a combination of “teacher” led, and self-study and culminated in a collaborative mini-project. The project was used to not only stretch the use of the languages, but also to experience the Agile ways of working alongside getting the best out of the tooling available. 

The Agile methodology is central and key to how we work at LDMS so including this in the training is really important, as well as independent sessions on how it has been adopted within the company.  

Interspersed with the training, all the Graduates are given multiple sessions and overviews related to LDMS and the wider group of companies it is part of, as well as company culture and expectations. 

To help graduates build connections beyond their immediate peer group, each is assigned a Buddy who supports them during their transition into LDMS.

What are your future plans for talent growth and graduate recruitment?

Chris Whitcombe: The next phase of our graduate plan includes initiatives aimed at nurturing technical craftsmanship, increasing product and domain knowledge, more formalised mentoring and more focus on independence. Delivery and performance goals will be set to help our graduates successfully reach the next stage in their career. Our graduate scheme has been so successful that I feel sure it is an avenue of recruitment we follow up on in the future.

Graduate Experience: Lewis Davies

Why did you choose to join LDMS?

Lewis Davies, Graduate Software Engineer at LDMS: Joining LDMS felt like a natural next step for me. As a Cardiff University graduate, I was keen to stay in the city and contribute to its growing fintech scene. During the interview process, I was struck by the welcoming atmosphere and the genuine enthusiasm of the team. It made a strong impression and confirmed that this was the right place to start my career.

What has been the most exciting part of your experience so far?

Lewis Davies: The most exciting part has been working as part of a collaborative software development team using Agile methodologies. I’ve had the chance to contribute across the full tech stack, from backend development in Java and Spring Boot to frontend work with JavaScript and React. It’s been rewarding to see the impact of your code in real time and know that you’re helping shape real-world solutions.

What skills have you developed during your time here?

Lewis Davies: I’ve developed a wide range of technical skills. Being part of an Agile team has taught me how to break down work into manageable pieces, collaborate closely with others and iterate quickly based on feedback. I’ve been involved in everything from sprint planning and daily stand-ups to code reviews, testing and deployments. This end-to-end involvement has helped me understand how good software is built. I’ve also picked up valuable domain knowledge in financial services, particularly within asset finance, which has helped me understand the broader context of the work we do.

Would you recommend the programme to others?

Lewis Davies: Absolutely. The graduate programme at LDMS has been a fantastic start to my career in software engineering. It’s given me the chance to grow quickly, learn something new every day and work on meaningful projects with supportive colleagues. It’s everything I was hoping for in a graduate role.

Advice for Other Fintechs & SMEs

What lessons have you learned from running a graduate programme?

Paul Wigham: Graduates are awesome! All the graduates that have been brought into the company for this cohort have risen to every challenge they have been tasked with and smashed it. Some additional mentoring support for each graduate would be beneficial, to allow them to integrate into delivery teams more quickly and efficiently. Overall, I feel the programme was very successful and that the calibre of each graduate that joined LDMS was very high. All of them are now fully integrated into the company and doing a great job!

Chris Whitcombe: I think the biggest surprise for us was the pace at which the graduates were able to pick up new technology, new ideas and new ways to work. Originally we looked at some of the early tasks and assumed they would take a few weeks but within days our graduates were flying ahead of them. I think the pace at which they learnt and also the way they worked as a team, supporting each other, with expert guidance from our team was a real credit to all involved.

What advice would you give to SMEs looking to start their own?

Chris Whitcombe: One big takeaway for us was how the graduates worked collaboratively, I don’t think we would have seen that happen if we had hired just one or two. Hiring a set of graduates to join as a team was a real boost to everyone’s speed of learning and ability to have an impact.

What are the biggest challenges in attracting and retaining young talent?

Chris Whitcombe: I think the challenges in attraction and retention are in some ways the same problem, it’s offering people a real opportunity for a career, which means clear progression, opportunities and the support to help them develop. I think being able to solve that both attracts people to your company but also helps retain them.