Founding Engineer

Founding Engineer | AI-Native Tech4Good | Python | London Salary: Up to £115,000 + meaningful equity Location: London, hybrid Tech: Python, FastAPI, React, TypeScript, PostgreSQL This is for those who are serious about mission & impact. I'm working with an early-stage AI company building technology for safety-critical, highly regulated environments. The product is already live, paid for and being used daily, so this isn't an AI idea waiting around for a use case. The next phase is about taking something that's working, scaling the platform and expanding into new markets. The role You'll join a team of around 10 as a Founding Engineer, working closely with the founders and taking genuine ownership across product and engineering. You'll be: Building production-grade agentic AI workflows and LLM-powered product features Owning backend development using Python and FastAPI Designing APIs, services and data architecture using PostgreSQL Working across architecture, infrastructure, CI/CD and Azure Contributing across React/TypeScript where needed Working directly with users to understand messy real-world problems and turn them into simple products Influencing technical architecture, product direction and engineering standards as the company grows There won't always be a perfectly written ticket waiting for you. A big part of the job is working out what should actually be built, then making it happen. What they're looking for The backend bar is important. You'll need strong commercial Python experience and ideally experience building modern web applications with FastAPI, Django, Flask or similar. Beyond that, they're looking for: Roughly 1–5 years of commercial engineering experience Strong software engineering and architectural fundamentals Experience building LLM/AI functionality in production, rather than purely personal experimentation Evidence you've thrived in an early-stage environment or another high-calibre engineering team A product mindset and willingness to work across the stack High ownership, curiosity and comfort operating without everything being predefined Experience with clean architecture, domain-driven design and event-driven systems would be particularly useful. Why this one? Tech4Good with teeth. The software you build will directly affect how teams operate within safety-critical environments. You'll get founding-level ownership without being pre-product, working alongside an ambitious technical team with paying customers and real-world validation already behind them. There's also significant scope to shape the architecture, product and engineering culture while the company is still small enough for your decisions to matter. If you're an ambitious Python Engineer who wants to build real AI products, solve difficult problems and have considerably more influence than your job title normally allows, I'd love to speak. Drop me a message or email imogen@sr2rec.co.uk for a confidential chat. Founding Engineer | AI-Native Tech4Good | Python | London