Senior/Staff Software Engineer in Edinburgh

Malted builds specialised AI systems for financial institutions. Our products combine advanced language technology with deep domain understanding to help firms make faster, more accurate and more accountable decisions. We focus entirely on financial services, working with leading banks, insurers and regulators to turn complex reasoning into clear, dependable intelligence. Our flagship product, Malted Pulse, provides AI that reasons transparently and can be inspected, governed and tuned to organisational policy. We’re a small, highly technical team based in Edinburgh, combining deep machine learning experience with a rigorous approach to product design and engineering. We believe that making AI systems understandable isn’t just an ethical necessity, it’s a competitive advantage.

About the team

You’ll join the Pulse product team, responsible for building and evolving the systems that power Malted Pulse. The team designs and operates the distributed infrastructure that enables our customers to deploy reasoning agents at scale, with reliability, traceability and performance at the core. You’ll collaborate closely with other senior engineers, product leads and our ML specialists to guide technical design, improve engineering standards, and shape how our systems scale as the company grows.

What you’ll do

• As a senior engineer, you’ll take ownership of complex systems from design through to delivery.
• You’ll help set the technical direction of our platform, mentor others and ensure our systems remain robust as we scale.
• This is a hands-on role that combines architecture, coding and strategic influence — ideal for someone who enjoys solving deep technical problems while contributing to product direction.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable, secure backend systems for Malted Pulse.
• Drive technical discussions and architecture decisions that shape the platform’s evolution.
• Build high-quality, maintainable code and ensure engineering best practices across the team.
• Develop and optimise cloud infrastructure for deploying machine learning models at scale.
• Debug, test and optimise performance across distributed services.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to a culture of technical excellence.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver end-to-end product features.

Who you are

• You’re a seasoned engineer who enjoys solving complex problems with clarity and precision.
• You thrive in an environment where autonomy and accountability go hand in hand.
• Eligible to work in the UK.
• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Demonstrated ability to design and deliver large-scale, high-performance systems.
• Strong experience in Python (or similar) and confidence across the stack.
• Deep familiarity with AWS or another major cloud platform.
• Experience designing distributed systems and APIs that serve production workloads.
• Proficiency with containerisation tools (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong understanding of databases (SQL, NoSQL) and system design principles.
• Proven ability to influence architecture and drive engineering best practices.
• Experience mentoring others or leading small technical projects.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, collaborative startup environment.

Preferred requirements

• Experience in enterprise or regulated environments (finance, insurance, etc.).
• Background in deep tech or products involving proprietary ML or data systems.
• Knowledge of security best practices for distributed systems.
• MSc or higher degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related field.
• Familiarity with ML frameworks (e.g. scikit-learn, PyTorch) or AI system integration.
• Experience contributing to open-source projects or technical publications.

Working at Malted

We’re based in Edinburgh and work from the office three days a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). The rest of the week is flexible. We keep a high bar for technical quality but a low tolerance for ego. You’ll join a team that values precision, humour and intellectual honesty.

• Pension and stock options.
• Medical and life insurance.
• Hybrid working with flexible hours.
• Professional development and growth opportunities.
• Free snacks and drinks.
• Social events and company outings.
• A collaborative, inclusive workplace that promotes innovation and teamwork.
• The chance to work on one-of-a-kind products at the forefront of the AI industry.
• Relocation assistance for candidates moving to Edinburgh.

Malted is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. We are not working with recruitment agencies on this role – we are keen to hear directly from candidates who are excited about what we’re building at Malted.