Summary
✨ AI‑Generated
Take a founding-level engineering role building a greenfield platform from the ground up. You will architect and scale highly available distributed systems, make major technical decisions, and own engineering direction in an environment where reliability and performance at significant scale are essential. Strong Java or Kotlin expertise and experience with large-scale backend systems are central to the role.
Highlights
High-ownership founding-engineer opportunity with strong compensation and bonus potential. The role provides significant influence over architecture, engineering practices, technical direction, and the creation of a new platform at substantial scale.
Description
⚡ Role: Backend Developer / Founding Engineer (VP-level seniority)
🌎 Location: London, UK - 5 days a week onsite
💰 Compensation: £140-200k base + 15-30% bonus (dependant on yoe)
I'm partnered with a leading global financial institution that is looking to hire a Backend Developer with Java / Kotlin expertise as a de facto Founding Engineer to help launch a greenfield initiative.
This is an opportunity to join at an early stage and play a key role in designing, building, and scaling a new platform from the ground up, with significant ownership across architecture, engineering, and technical direction.
The successful candidate will have a strong track record of working at significant scale, building distributed systems that support a large number of end users and operate reliably in complex, high-availability environments.
Key Responsibilities
• Architect and build at scale — design highly scalable, distributed systems capable of supporting a large and growing user base.
• Own the engineering from the ground up — make high-impact decisions around architecture, technology, and technical direction.
• Build for resilience — engineer systems that are fault-tolerant, secure, highly available, and built to perform under pressure.
• Solve genuinely hard engineering problems — identify performance bottlenecks, tackle complex production issues, and continuously improve the platform.
• Raise the engineering bar — champion modern technologies, pragmatic design patterns, and best practices across the development lifecycle.
• Ideal opportunity for an engineer who wants genuine 0→1 ownership.
What We're Looking For
• Strong backend engineering experience with Java and/or Kotlin, building production-grade systems.
• Proven experience working at significant scale, building platforms used by a large number of end users.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, scalability, reliability, and system design.
• A pragmatic, high-ownership mindset — comfortable making decisions, navigating ambiguity, and solving complex problems.
• A team-first engineer who shares knowledge, maintains high standards, and helps raise the technical bar around them.
📧 Sounds like you? Please click on the ‘Easy Apply’ button.
You can also send your CV directly to Simeon Kirov at Stanford Black or message me directly!
