Founding Engineer

London
5 days ago
Create job alert

Overview

We're hiring a Founding / Senior Software Engineer to join a well-funded, early-stage AI product team based in London. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for someone who enjoys building real products from the ground up and wants meaningful influence over technical direction, architecture, and delivery.

The product is already live, customer-facing, and built around applied AI rather than research. The focus is on shipping reliable systems that solve real operational problems at scale.

This role suits engineers who thrive in ambiguity, enjoy working close to customers, and are motivated by impact rather than hierarchy.

What You'll Be Doing

Building and shipping core product features using Python and TypeScript

Designing and owning backend-leaning full-stack systems

Working with LLMs and AI-driven workflows in production

Building event-driven systems and third-party integrations

Taking ownership from problem discovery through to delivery

Balancing speed vs scalability depending on context

Contributing to engineering best practices around testing, reliability, and security

Tech Environment

Languages: Python, TypeScript

Architecture: Cloud-native, distributed systems, event-driven design

AI: Practical LLM usage in real-world products

Infrastructure exposure: Kubernetes, serverless, modern cloud platforms (experience here is a plus, not a blocker)

What We're Looking For

5-10+ years' experience in full-stack software engineering (backend-leaning)

Proven experience shipping AI-powered products end-to-end

Early-stage startup experience strongly preferred

Comfortable working directly with customers and stakeholders

Strong ownership mindset; enjoys building, not just maintaining

Backgrounds as an ex-founder or founding engineer are very welcome

What's Not a Fit

Long tenures exclusively in large or highly process-driven organisations

Engineers who prefer narrowly scoped, ticket-based work

People uncomfortable with in-person collaboration or ambiguity

Location & Package

London-based

5 days onsite

Salary: £150,000 - £220,000 (experience dependent)

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Lead Software Engineer (Founding Team)

Subscribe to Future Tech Insights for the latest jobs & insights, direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

How to Write a Cloud Computing Job Ad That Attracts the Right People

Cloud computing underpins much of the UK’s digital economy. From startups and scale-ups to enterprise organisations and the public sector, cloud platforms enable everything from data analytics and AI to cybersecurity, DevOps and digital services. Yet despite high demand for cloud skills, many employers struggle to attract the right candidates. Cloud job adverts are often flooded with unsuitable applications, while experienced cloud engineers, architects and platform specialists quietly pass them by. In most cases, the problem is not the shortage of cloud talent — it is the quality and clarity of the job advert. Cloud professionals are pragmatic, technically experienced and highly selective. A poorly written job ad signals confusion, unrealistic expectations or a lack of cloud maturity. A well-written one signals credibility, good engineering culture and long-term thinking. This guide explains how to write a cloud computing job ad that attracts the right people, improves applicant quality and strengthens your employer brand.

Maths for Cloud Jobs: The Only Topics You Actually Need (& How to Learn Them)

If you are applying for cloud computing jobs in the UK you might have noticed something frustrating: job descriptions rarely ask for “maths” directly yet interviews often drift into capacity, performance, reliability, cost or security trade-offs that are maths in practice. The good news is you do not need degree-level theory to be job-ready. For most roles like Cloud Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Platform Engineer, SRE, Cloud Architect, FinOps Analyst or Cloud Security Engineer you keep coming back to a small set of practical skills: Units, rates & back-of-the-envelope estimation (requests per second, throughput, latency, storage growth) Statistics for reliability & observability (percentiles, error rates, SLOs, error budgets) Capacity planning & queueing intuition (utilisation, saturation, Little’s Law) Cost modelling & optimisation (right-sizing, break-even thinking, cost per transaction) Trade-off reasoning under constraints (performance vs cost vs reliability) This guide explains exactly what to learn plus a 6-week plan & portfolio projects you can publish to prove it.

Neurodiversity in Cloud Computing Careers: Turning Different Thinking into a Superpower

Cloud computing sits at the heart of modern tech. Almost every digital product runs on someone’s cloud platform – from banking apps & streaming services to AI tools & online shops. Behind those platforms are teams of cloud engineers, architects, SREs, security specialists & more. These roles demand problem-solvers who can think in systems, spot patterns, stay calm under pressure & imagine better ways to build & run infrastructure. That makes cloud computing a natural fit for many neurodivergent people – including those with ADHD, autism & dyslexia. If you are neurodivergent & considering a cloud career, you might have heard messages like “you’re too distracted for engineering”, “too literal for stakeholder work” or “too disorganised for operations”. In reality, many traits that come with ADHD, autism & dyslexia are exactly what cloud teams need. This guide is written for cloud computing job seekers in the UK. We will cover: What neurodiversity means in a cloud context How ADHD, autism & dyslexia strengths map to cloud roles Practical workplace adjustments you can ask for under UK law How to talk about neurodivergence in applications & interviews By the end, you should have a clearer sense of where you might thrive in cloud computing – & how to turn “different thinking” into a professional superpower.