At a Glance
- Tasks: Build innovative software that models real businesses and enhances operational efficiency.
- Company: Cypress Labs, a pioneering tech company transforming business ownership.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, equity options, and a collaborative work environment.
- Other info: Small team with big ambitions, backed by top-tier investors.
- Why this job: Join a mission-driven team tackling ambitious technical challenges in a dynamic setting.
- Qualifications: Experience in software development across various stacks and a passion for problem-solving.
The predicted salary is between 100000 - 155000 £ per year.
Cypress is building a generational company to enable the future of ownership. Our platform continuously models a business as it runs, constructing a living representation that agents can act on and owners can collaborate with. This changes who can own a business, how those businesses are operated, and how far they can go.
We're working in person in London.
The Role
We're building a system that autonomously constructs, refines, and reasons with mathematical models of real businesses, in order to simulate, plan, decide, and act. You'll bring this system to life by writing software across the entire stack, every day.
You will work on whatever needs the most attention: infrastructure, data pipelines, integrations, agent orchestration, domain modeling. You'll work directly with early design partners (real business owners, real operations) to close the gap between what we've built and what they need. You'll inject your opinions into architecture and strategy alongside the founders.
What You Will Do
- Extend the core platform: event sourcing, domain modeling, agent orchestration
- Ship, operate, monitor, maintain production infrastructure
- Build AI agent capabilities: tool design, context assembly, sub-agent architectures, evals
- Integrate external systems: POS, accounting, labor scheduling, weather, banking APIs
- Onboard new merchants, diagnose issues, and translate operational needs into system capabilities
You Bring
- Experience shipping production software at an organization where craft and tempo are taken seriously.
- Range across the stack. You've worked across backend, infrastructure, and data layers, and you're quick to grok the unfamiliar.
- Craft in code. Clean, concise, well-reasoned. Your instinct is to simplify.
- Systems thinking. You reason about how components interact, where state lives, how data flows, and what breaks under load or drift.
- Comfort with math. You don't need to be a mathematician, but stochastic differential equations, Bayesian inference, and Monte Carlo methods shouldn't scare you.
- AI-native engineering. You've built with LLMs beyond wrapper apps: systems where AI is tightly integrated with structured tools, domain logic, and feedback loops.
- High agency. Ambiguity energizes you to find clarity.
- Customer instinct. You're comfortably talking to business owners, dealing with messy real-world data, and translating evidence into engineering priorities.
Why Us
Cypress is an unusually ambitious technical problem. Autonomously modeling real businesses, running in production, under real constraints. If you want to build agents that matter rather than demos, this is the place.
Founding-team equity and direct ownership of the stack. You'll inject your opinions into every technical decision alongside the founders.
Our team will stay small, and our ambitions will stay big. We aim for a high revenue-to-headcount ratio and a high-trust, high-ownership culture.
Backed by a top-tier venture firm and an angel roster of experienced operators. Product is already working with early design partners.
Compensation
£100k to £155k base, depending on experience. Meaningful equity reflecting a founding role.
Founding Engineer employer: Cypress Labs
Cypress is an exceptional employer for those looking to make a significant impact in the tech industry. With a focus on building a generational company, employees enjoy a high-trust, high-ownership culture that encourages innovation and collaboration directly with founders. Located in London, the company offers competitive compensation, meaningful equity, and the opportunity to work on ambitious technical challenges that truly matter.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Founding Engineer
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Cypress Labs or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Cypress Labs.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Cypress Labs.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Cypress Labs that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Founding Engineer
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Cypress Labs.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Cypress Labs and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Cypress Labs
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Cypress Labs uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
