Founding Product Engineer - Backend Leaning

Founding Product Engineer - Backend Leaning

Full-Time 60000 - 80000 £ / year (est.) No working from home possible
HealthTech

At a Glance

  • Tasks: Join us in revolutionising the NHS with innovative tech solutions.
  • Company: A passionate team of NHS staff dedicated to improving healthcare.
  • Benefits: Enjoy homemade meals, paid volunteer days, and a generous learning budget.
  • Other info: Flexible work arrangements and a focus on team bonding and personal growth.
  • Why this job: Make a real impact on healthcare while working in a collaborative environment.
  • Qualifications: 5+ years experience in software development, especially with React and TypeScript.

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

Let's make the NHS the most advanced healthcare system in the world. The world’s best healthcare, for free. It's not a new idea, it's called the NHS. But the largest healthcare provider is fundamentally broken. So we’re on a mission to fix it with technology that actually works. We love the NHS because it’s accessible to all, free at the point of delivery and employs millions up and down the UK. But we've all read the headlines. It's under intense pressure with rising costs, GP strikes, budget uncertainty and an ageing population. Which means longer wait times, fewer appointments and lower quality care for the people who need it most. The NHS is beautiful, but broken. The largest cost (£66bn+) is staff, who spend a ridiculous amount of time on mundane admin. 35% of NHS staff are employed to complete administrative work all day, every day. And that's where we're making a difference. We're focused on relentlessly automating repetitive processes within the NHS. And we’ve had great early success. Our first product, Automated Registrations, is already used by 24% of GP practices in England. With this wedge in the market, we're now building more powerful tech that unlocks access to healthcare for the entire nation.

Our Principles

  • Care deeply
  • Work hard
  • Be your word
  • Trust in radical truth and transparency
  • Do your life's best work
  • Find the fun

Read more about our principles in the Healthtech-1 Handbook.

What we’re looking for

This is for a product-minded full stack founding engineer who wants to move with extreme urgency and have complete autonomy. You'll help build and scale our product, working across teams and directly with our customers.

Requirements:

  • You are operating at a senior or lead level and have 5+ years of experience, with expertise in React and TypeScript.
  • You’ve experienced a startup or scale up especially at an early stage.
  • You’ve been part of a small squad of high performing engineers and you weren’t just “one of many”.
  • You may have a founders/entrepreneurial mindset or have been a technical founder yourself and get the early stage growth journey.
  • You pride yourself on producing high quality code which scales effectively into different environments.
  • You feel accountable for the end-to-end solution and can build our product which can handle various NHS "oddities".
  • You understand and mitigate the risks of distributed systems, ensuring code that is failsafe even in the cases where things go wrong.
  • You thrive with autonomy, responsibility, and building things that truly matter.

Tech environment

  • Fullstack (Backend leaning): TypeScript or similar
  • APIs: Designing and consuming scalable, well-structured services
  • Data: Working with production systems and performance considerations
  • Experience in scaling product environments or high-stakes domains (health, finance, infra) is a strong advantage.

What success looks like

  • You ship intuitive, high-quality user experiences that clinicians and patients rely on daily.
  • You influence product direction, not just implementation.
  • You identify and solve performance and usability challenges before they become problems.
  • You become a trusted voice across engineering, product, and design.
  • The team delivers faster and better because of you!

A bit about us

We’re all NHS staff. We’re inside-outsiders. Trusted with one of the biggest datasets in the world. Our office is within a GP practice. This is our unfair advantage. Got a question? Pop down the corridor. Want to learn how your work affects real patients? Pop downstairs to reception. 3-5 days in the office, depending on your team and the company schedule. We highly prioritise in-person communication and prefer candidates who want to work 4+ days a week in the office. Our anchor days are Mon, Tues and Fri. Homemade breakfast and lunch are on the house every day when you're in the office, ensuring you're fuelled for success!

We work in growth cycles. Every 8 weeks we do the same set of activities. 1 week outside of Business-as-Usual to research, strategise, plan our work. 7 weeks to knuckle down and deliver it. We’re highly collaborative. One of the benefits of a high trust team is we often work autonomously, but as a team we’re very collaborative by nature. Two heads are often better than one, and we frequently lean on each other to solve problems together.

We’re backed by industry leaders. We’re on the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator, backed by the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Program, winners of the London Business School Healthtech Challenge, Innovate UK, and Y Combinator (S23).

An opportunity for real upside

  • Paid volunteer days. We offer an additional 2 paid days off per year where you can give back to your mission of choice.
  • Every 8 weeks we take a day off to socialise as a team. In the past we’ve hiked box hill, raved at All Points East and spent one rainy day at Thorpe park. This works out as 6 working days a year.
  • Learning budget of £250 annually and time off to spend it - we care about this; this is flexible and based on need but everyone will receive a yearly allocation towards their continual growth.
  • Health and fitness budget of £60 per month.
  • An additional 7 days of paid leave is available if you want to take time to learn how to meditate.
  • Tooling; You’ll have your choice of operating systems and any additional tools you need to do your best work (e.g. keyboard, additional monitors, mouse etc).
  • If you’re on our Engineering teams you’ll receive the latest MacBook Pro and our Growth & Ops teams receives a MacBook Air.
  • We know health and family come first which is why we have a generous sick leave policy with additional days that can be taken for mental health leave.
  • We prioritise time outside of work to bond, once a year we’ll holiday together! Destination chosen by popular vote. In 2025, we spent 8 days in a surf camp in France!

No private medical insurance, because we believe in the NHS and we are here to improve it!

Parental leave: Post passing probation it is: statutory - 6 weeks 90% pay then, SMP for 33 weeks; if you've been an employee for a year: 12 weeks 100% pay then, SMP for 27 weeks; and if you have been here for 2 years: 18 weeks 100% pay then, SMP for 21 weeks. This will improve over time. We also include up to £9,000 of childcare contribution for primary caregivers to support a five-day return where possible.

Fertility leave: We understand how difficult a fertility journey can be. This is why we give an extra 5 days off per year if you or your partner are going through fertility treatment.

Pension: We operate a standard 3% employer contribution and employees auto-contribute 5% of their salary. We use Nest as our provider.

Local living benefit: A one-off benefit to support living closer to the office: £5,000 if you live within a 30-minute walk, or £2,500 within a 30-minute bike. It is optional, available immediately on signing, and not linked to performance or progression.

If you choose to work late in the office, you can expense dinner after 7pm and an Uber home after 9pm, or earlier if you feel unsafe travelling in the dark. This is optional and about wellbeing, not performance or expectations.

Inclusive & Diverse by Design

We care about building a product that is loved and a culture that is rich in perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. Our team represents more than ten different cultures. We come together every lunch time for a home cooked meal, rotated among team members! We want everyone in our team to know that they belong. We are purposeful about this and are proactively building a company that is inclusive of all people; from race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, neurodiversity, disability, colour, and national origin - essentially every type of diversity. We don’t just want people who fit in, we want them to fit together. We're active in continually improving the way we make this happen.

Founding Product Engineer - Backend Leaning employer: HealthTech

HealthTech is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment in Greater London where innovation meets purpose. With a strong focus on employee growth, we provide opportunities for professional development alongside a competitive salary and benefits package, including equity and a health and fitness budget. Join us in our mission to transform NHS access while enjoying a flexible holiday policy that promotes work-life balance.

HealthTech

Contact Details:

HealthTech Recruitment Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫

We think this is how you could land Founding Product Engineer - Backend Leaning

Tip Number 1

Network like a pro! Get out there and connect with people in the industry. Attend meetups, tech events, or even casual coffee chats. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings or can put in a good word for you.

Tip Number 2

Show off your skills! Create a portfolio or GitHub repository showcasing your projects, especially those that align with the NHS mission. This gives potential employers a taste of what you can do and how you think.

Tip Number 3

Be proactive! Don’t just wait for job postings to pop up. Reach out directly to companies you admire, like us at StudySmarter. Express your interest and share how you can contribute to their mission.

Tip Number 4

Prepare for interviews by understanding the company’s values and challenges. For us, it’s all about improving the NHS. Tailor your responses to show how your experience and mindset align with our goals and principles.

We think you need these skills to ace Founding Product Engineer - Backend Leaning

React
TypeScript
Fullstack Development
API Design
Scalable Services
Data Performance Considerations
Distributed Systems

Some tips for your application 🫡

Show Your Passion for the NHS:When you're writing your application, let your love for the NHS shine through! We want to see how you connect with our mission to improve healthcare. Share any personal experiences or insights that fuel your passion for making a difference in this space.

Highlight Your Technical Skills:Make sure to showcase your expertise in React and TypeScript clearly. We’re looking for someone who can produce high-quality code, so don’t hold back on detailing your past projects and how you've tackled challenges in your previous roles.

Be Authentic and Transparent:We value radical truth and transparency, so be yourself in your application! Share your journey, your successes, and even your failures. This helps us understand who you are and how you might fit into our team culture.

Apply Through Our Website:Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensures you’re considered for the role. Plus, it shows you’re serious about joining our mission to transform the NHS!

How to prepare for a job interview at HealthTech

Know Your Tech Inside Out

Make sure you’re well-versed in React and TypeScript, as these are key for the role. Brush up on your knowledge of APIs and distributed systems, and be ready to discuss how you've tackled performance challenges in past projects.

Show Your Startup Spirit

This company values a founders' mindset, so come prepared with examples of how you've contributed to early-stage growth. Share stories that highlight your autonomy and responsibility in previous roles, especially in high-pressure environments.

Understand the NHS Landscape

Familiarise yourself with the current challenges facing the NHS, such as rising costs and administrative burdens. Be ready to discuss how your skills can help address these issues and improve healthcare delivery.

Emphasise Collaboration

Since teamwork is crucial here, prepare to talk about how you’ve worked collaboratively in the past. Highlight instances where you’ve solved problems as part of a team and how you value diverse perspectives in achieving goals.