Anti-Bot Engineer in London

Anti-Bot Engineer in London

London Full-Time 60000 - 80000 ÂŁ / year (est.) Home office possible
Adthena

At a Glance

  • Tasks: Design and build resilient web scraping systems for Google and similar platforms.
  • Company: Join Adthena, an award-winning search intelligence platform with a vibrant culture.
  • Benefits: Enjoy remote work, trust-based vacation, stock options, and a home office stipend.
  • Other info: Dynamic team environment with excellent career growth and regular social events.
  • Why this job: Make a real impact in tech while working with cutting-edge AI tools.
  • Qualifications: Strong Python skills and experience with web scraping and anti-bot techniques.

The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 ÂŁ per year.

Our Mission

Join us in shaping the future of paid search intelligence. Adthena is an award-winning search intelligence platform powered by patented AI technology and a team of dedicated experts. We help brands, marketers, and agencies dominate their competitive landscapes with unparalleled insights into the paid search market. Our Whole Market View, Smart Monitor, and Local View solutions give clients the clarity to optimize spend, increase ROI, and stay ahead of the competition.

Trusted by global brands like Citibank, L’Oréal, and Volvo, and backed by Updata Partners, we’ve been redefining search intelligence since 2012. In 2025, Adthena continued its winning streak, earning 8 major search industry awards. Highlights include Best AI Search Software Solution at the US Search Awards, Best Search Software Tool at the European Search Awards, and Best Software Innovation at the Global Search Awards.

Ready to make an impact in an industry-leading company? Let’s do it together.

Why Join Us?

We offer the best of both worlds: the maturity and stability of a well-established company combined with the energy, agility, and impact of a scaling tech organisation. If you’ve been hesitant about joining a typical tech company due to concerns about chaos, fragility, or volatility, Adthena is your answer. We’re smaller than large-scale enterprises, offering more autonomy, less red tape, and accelerated growth.

Here’s what we offer:

  • Startup Engineering culture
  • Strong Culture: Our quarterly surveys show a 93% average approval rating for company culture, with an overall eNPS of 27.
  • Award-Winning Product: US 2025 Search Awards for Best AI Search Software Innovation
  • Stock Options: Our employees do incredible work, so as we grow, everyone shares the rewards.
  • Trust-Based Vacation: Take as much time off as you need, when you need it.
  • Remote-First: 52% of Adthenian’s work fully remote, with others choosing Hybrid Work at our 3 Geohubs (London, Austin, Sydney).
  • Flexible Work: Work how and where you do your best, with full autonomy over your day.
  • Career Growth: Bespoke training and career development via "Sherpa plans” to guide your growth.
  • Monthly Hackdays & Training Days
  • Family Care Package: Up to 6 months fully paid maternity leave, and 2 months paternity leave.
  • Home Office Stipend: $200 for your ideal remote setup.
  • Swag Welcome Gift: $70 credit to grab some merch.
  • Birthday Day Off: Celebrate your special day.
  • Regular Socials: Summer & Christmas parties, annual and quarterly offsites, monthly meet-ups.
  • Volunteer Days: Make a difference with paid volunteer time each quarter.

About the Role

Reporting to: Michal Gondar, Head of Engineering
Location: UK Remote
Interviews: 2 Stages
Start Date: ASAP

What you’ll do at Adthena

As a Senior Anti-Bot Engineer, you will design, build, and operate large-scale, resilient web scraping systems, with a strong focus on Google and Google-like search environments. This role sits at the intersection of data engineering, reverse engineering, and systems reliability, and is critical to delivering accurate, timely, and trustworthy data at scale. You will work on complex scraping problems where naĂŻve approaches do not work, including dynamic rendering, anti-bot defences, frequent markup changes, and high-volume data collection.

Responsibilities

  • Design and maintain large-scale Python scraping systems that operate reliably against Google and other highly defended websites
  • Build scrapers for dynamic, JavaScript-heavy pages using browser automation and hybrid approaches
  • Continuously adapt to changes in page structure, request flows, and anti-automation mechanisms
  • Engineer robust extraction pipelines that prioritise data accuracy, consistency, and observability
  • Implement proxy, fingerprinting, and request-routing strategies to maximise stability and throughput
  • Monitor scrape health, detect failures early, and rapidly debug production issues
  • Optimise performance, cost, and latency across scraping infrastructure
  • Work closely with data engineers, data scientists, and product teams to ensure scraped data is usable and trusted
  • Document scraping logic and operational runbooks for long-term maintainability

Who we look for

Research shows men apply if they meet ~60% of the criteria, while women and underrepresented groups apply only if they meet all requirements. If you have the skills but don't meet every requirement, reach out – we'd love to explore how you could be a great fit!

Required Experience:

  • Strong professional experience with Python (or another main language, i.e. GoLang, Rust, JavaScript) including production-grade scraping systems
  • Deep hands-on experience scraping Google or similarly protected platforms
  • Solid understanding of HTTP, TLS, cookies, headers, redirects, and browser networking behaviour
  • Experience with tools such as Playwright, Selenium, Puppeteer, or equivalent browser automation frameworks
  • Strong knowledge of HTML parsing, DOM traversal, and data extraction techniques
  • Experience handling rate limiting, CAPTCHA, IP rotation, and bot detection systems
  • Comfortable working with asynchronous and concurrent scraping architectures
  • Experience running scrapers at scale in cloud environments
  • Strong debugging skills and ability to reason about complex failure modes
  • Experience with headless browser fingerprinting and anti-bot evasion techniques

Nice To Have:

  • Familiarity with containerisation and orchestration, such as Docker and Kubernetes
  • Experience with distributed task systems and job queues
  • Background in data quality monitoring and anomaly detection
  • Experience working with search, advertising, or competitive intelligence data

What We Value

  • Pragmatic problem-solving in hostile and fast-changing technical environments
  • High ownership of systems that run continuously and at scale
  • A strong bias toward reliability, correctness, and observability
  • Ability to explain complex technical behaviour clearly to non-specialists
  • Curiosity about how large platforms evolve their defences and infrastructure

Our Core Values

All Adthenians are expected to align closely with our ‘Core Values’.

What it means...

  • Get Shit Done: We're big on taking action, owning our challenges, and finding solutions.
  • Freedom with Responsibility: We take charge of results to recognition. We know that our hustle not only moves the needle for the company but also sets us up for personal success.
  • Deliver Remarkable Quality: We care about exceeding expectations in the work we do and aim to always do our best work as individuals and as a team.
  • Smart & Always Improving: We strive daily to expand our knowledge and become better at what we do.

Meet your teammates

You’ll work closely with:

  • Paul Felby - Chief Product & Tech Officer
  • Ivan Nikolov - Lead Technical Architect

Anti-Bot Engineer in London employer: Adthena

Adthena is an exceptional employer that combines the stability of an established company with the dynamic environment of a scaling tech organisation. With a strong focus on employee autonomy, trust-based vacation policies, and bespoke career development plans, we foster a culture of innovation and collaboration. Our remote-first approach allows for flexibility in work arrangements, ensuring that our team can thrive while contributing to award-winning products that redefine search intelligence.
Adthena

Contact Detail:

Adthena Recruiting Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫

We think this is how you could land Anti-Bot Engineer in London

✨Tip Number 1

Network like a pro! Reach out to people in the industry, attend meetups, and connect with potential colleagues on LinkedIn. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings or can put in a good word for you.

✨Tip Number 2

Prepare for those interviews! Research Adthena’s products and culture so you can show off your knowledge and enthusiasm. Practice common interview questions and think about how your skills align with their mission.

✨Tip Number 3

Showcase your skills through projects! If you’ve worked on relevant scraping systems or have side projects, make sure to highlight them. A portfolio can really set you apart from other candidates.

✨Tip Number 4

Don’t hesitate to apply through our website! Even if you don’t meet every single requirement, we want to hear from you. Your unique experiences could be just what we’re looking for!

We think you need these skills to ace Anti-Bot Engineer in London

Python
Web Scraping
Data Engineering
Reverse Engineering
Systems Reliability
Browser Automation (Playwright, Selenium, Puppeteer)
HTML Parsing
DOM Traversal
Data Extraction Techniques
Asynchronous Programming
Debugging Skills
Cloud Environments
Anti-Bot Evasion Techniques
Containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes)
Data Quality Monitoring

Some tips for your application 🫡

Tailor Your Application: Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter for the Anti-Bot Engineer role. Highlight your experience with Python and web scraping, and show us how your skills align with our mission at Adthena.

Showcase Your Problem-Solving Skills: We love candidates who can tackle complex challenges. In your application, share examples of how you've overcome tough scraping problems or navigated anti-bot defences in the past.

Be Clear and Concise: When writing your application, keep it straightforward. Use clear language to explain your experience and avoid jargon that might confuse us. We want to understand your journey!

Apply Through Our Website: For the best chance of getting noticed, apply directly through our website. It’s the easiest way for us to see your application and get you into the process quickly!

How to prepare for a job interview at Adthena

✨Know Your Tech Inside Out

Make sure you brush up on your Python skills and any other relevant languages like GoLang or JavaScript. Be prepared to discuss your experience with web scraping, especially against platforms like Google. They’ll want to know how you handle challenges like dynamic rendering and anti-bot defences.

✨Showcase Your Problem-Solving Skills

Adthena values pragmatic problem-solving, so come ready with examples of how you've tackled complex scraping issues in the past. Think about specific scenarios where you had to adapt quickly to changes in page structure or overcome bot detection systems.

✨Familiarise Yourself with Their Tools

Get to grips with tools like Playwright, Selenium, and Puppeteer before your interview. Being able to discuss your hands-on experience with these frameworks will show that you’re not just familiar with the theory but can apply it practically.

✨Emphasise Team Collaboration

Since you'll be working closely with data engineers and product teams, highlight your experience in collaborative environments. Share examples of how you’ve communicated complex technical concepts to non-specialists, as this aligns with their core values of clarity and teamwork.

Anti-Bot Engineer in London
Adthena
Location: London

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