Lead Software Engineer

In this role you will own the technical direction and hands-on delivery for a fast-growing AI startup focused on automating UK property operations. You will shape scalable backend systems, microservice architecture and AI-powered workflows, while leading a small engineering team. You’ll work closely with founders to set high technical standards and drive impactful product outcomes. This is a hands-on leadership position with a strong focus on architecture, performance, and scale in an AI-native environment.

• salary up to 160k + equity
• London location
• 4 days a week
• hands-on ownership
• leadership opportunity
• high-growth startup environment

• Architect and build scalable backend systems and APIs end-to-end
• Design microservice and event-driven architectures to support real-time AI workflows
• Build infrastructure powering agentic AI at scale
• Lead a small team of engineers, driving delivery and code reviews
• Set standards for AI coding tools and agentic workflows
• Build secure, performant, and maintainable systems as the platform scales

• Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics or related degree
• 5-8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience
• Deep expertise in Node.js and NestJS
• Strong experience building RESTful APIs and microservice-based systems
• Experience with LLMs, AI agents and agentic workflows
• Experience using Claude Code in development workflows
• Previously owned technical direction on significant projects
• Strong startup, AI, SaaS or automation background
• Strong product instinct and customer-facing mindset

• high ownership
• AI-native mindset
• strong technical judgement
• Node.js
• NestJS
• RESTful APIs