At a Glance
- Tasks: Build an AI-enabled product and develop full-stack features in a collaborative team.
- Company: Join RC Fornax, a forward-thinking tech company focused on defence and procurement.
- Benefits: Flexible hybrid work, competitive pay, and real ownership of projects.
- Other info: Opportunity for career growth and shaping the future of technology.
- Why this job: Make a tangible impact on innovative AI solutions in a dynamic environment.
- Qualifications: Strong full-stack experience, especially with TypeScript, React, and AI workflows.
The predicted salary is between 70000 - 100000 £ per year.
Location: Bristol
Engagement Type: Permanent or Contract
Day Rate / Salary: £350–£500 per day (contract) or permanent package by discussion
Work Model: Hybrid - Bristol office, flexible by agreement
About the Role
We’re looking for a Senior Full-Stack Engineer to join the product engineering team at RC Fornax. This role will initially focus on building a new AI-enabled product, a structured document generation and workflow tool that transforms unstructured inputs into high-quality, structured outputs through analysis, drafting, review, and publishing workflows. The product sits within a broader defence and procurement platform, where outputs directly support real-world engineering, delivery, and supplier decisions. The early emphasis is on getting this product built quickly and properly. Over time, this role will expand to work across the wider platform as part of a small, collaborative engineering team. We’re looking for a pragmatic, delivery-focused engineer who is comfortable working across the stack, but whose strongest value comes from backend systems, AI workflow orchestration, and turning complex product workflows into reliable software. You’ll own vertical slices of the product, contribute to technical decisions, and help shape how we build and operate the platform as it evolves. This is applied AI product engineering. The focus is on building reliable systems around structured generation, agent-driven workflows, and multi-step processes, not frontend-heavy work, and not ML research. You’ll work closely with product and leadership in a small team environment, with real ownership and direct impact.
Technical Environment
You’ll be working within an established monorepo and product architecture, including:
- Frontend: Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind
- Backend / Data: Convex (real-time database, serverless functions)
- AI orchestration: AI SDK + OpenAI (structured generation, agentic workflows)
- Auth: Clerk
- Monorepo: Turborepo with shared packages and strict conventions
What You’ll Do
- Build a new AI-enabled product from the ground up as a core platform capability
- Design and implement backend workflows for AI-assisted document analysis, structured generation, agent-driven interactions, and multi-step processes
- Develop full-stack features across frontend and backend
- Design APIs, data models, and workflow/state logic for complex systems
- Build agentic workflows (e.g. conversational interfaces that guide users through structured output creation)
- Work with document ingestion, extracted inputs, prompts, structured outputs, validation, retries, and error handling
- Translate complex product workflows into clean, maintainable engineering solutions
- Collaborate closely with product to shape scope and iterate quickly
- Contribute to CI/CD, environments, and production readiness as the product matures
- Implement secure and reliable engineering practices suitable for regulated and defence-related environments
- Over time, contribute across the wider product stack
What We’re Looking For
- Strong full-stack engineering experience
- Strong TypeScript experience
- Strong React and Next.js experience
- Strong backend and system design capability
- Experience building APIs and managing application data models
- Experience building or owning complex multi-step workflows (not just CRUD apps)
- Core Requirement: Production AI workflow experience - building reliable AI-assisted systems, including structured generation, prompt orchestration, agentic patterns, validation, retries, and failure handling
- Strong understanding of how applications behave in production (deployments, environments, observability, reliability)
- Comfortable debugging production issues across environments
- Experience improving or hardening early-stage systems
- Pragmatic problem solver with a strong delivery mindset
- Product-minded engineer who contributes to solution design, not just implementation
- Actively uses modern AI development tooling (e.g. Cursor, Copilot, Claude)
- Right to work in the UK
Nice to Have
- Experience building AI agents or agentic workflows
- Experience working with NoSQL or real-time databases (or willingness to learn quickly)
- Experience with document ingestion or file-heavy systems
- Experience with PDF generation or e-signature integrations
- Experience with CI/CD, logging, monitoring, or alerting
- Experience with messaging or event-driven systems
- Experience working on SaaS or platform products
- Experience in regulated or defence-related environments
- Experience contributing to or delivering 0 to 1 product builds
What Success Looks Like
- Helped take a new AI-enabled product from concept to a working product quickly
- Built reliable AI-assisted workflows for structured generation and user-guided outputs
- Delivered high-quality product features across backend and frontend
- Improved reliability and clarity of AI-driven processes and user feedback
- Contributed effectively to the wider engineering environment and product evolution
What We Offer
- Opportunity to build a core AI-enabled product from the ground up
- Real ownership over product and technical decisions
- Work that directly impacts defence, engineering, and procurement outcomes
- A small, high-trust team working closely across product and engineering
- Flexible engagement (contract or permanent) and hybrid working by agreement
- The chance to shape both a new product and the broader platform over time
Additional Information: Right to work in the UK is required. Eligibility for UK Security Clearance (SC) is great but not essential.
Senior Full-Stack Engineer employer: RC Fornax
Contact Detail:
RC Fornax Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Full-Stack Engineer
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to your connections in the tech industry, especially those who work at companies you're interested in. A friendly chat can lead to referrals, which are often the golden ticket to landing an interview.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! Create a portfolio showcasing your projects, especially those involving AI and full-stack development. This gives potential employers a taste of what you can do and sets you apart from the crowd.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for technical interviews by brushing up on your coding skills and system design principles. Practice common algorithms and data structures, and be ready to discuss your past projects in detail—especially those that align with AI workflows.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in joining our team at StudySmarter.
We think you need these skills to ace Senior Full-Stack Engineer
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application: Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter to highlight your experience with full-stack engineering, especially in AI workflows. We want to see how your skills align with the role, so don’t hold back on showcasing relevant projects!
Showcase Your Technical Skills: When detailing your experience, focus on your proficiency with TypeScript, React, and Next.js. Mention any specific projects where you’ve built APIs or managed complex workflows, as this will really catch our eye.
Be Clear and Concise: Keep your application straightforward and to the point. We appreciate clarity, so avoid jargon and make sure your achievements stand out. Use bullet points for easy reading and highlight key contributions in your previous roles.
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to submit your application directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your details and ensures you’re considered for the role. Plus, it makes the process smoother for everyone involved!
How to prepare for a job interview at RC Fornax
✨Know Your Tech Stack
Make sure you’re well-versed in the technologies mentioned in the job description, especially TypeScript, React, and Next.js. Brush up on your backend systems knowledge too, as they’ll want to see how you can design APIs and manage data models.
✨Showcase Your AI Experience
Since this role focuses on building AI-enabled products, be ready to discuss your experience with AI workflows. Prepare examples of how you've built reliable AI-assisted systems and handled complex multi-step processes in your previous roles.
✨Demonstrate Problem-Solving Skills
They’re looking for a pragmatic problem solver, so come prepared with specific examples of challenges you’ve faced in past projects. Highlight how you approached these issues and what solutions you implemented to ensure successful outcomes.
✨Engage with the Team
This role involves collaboration within a small team, so show your interpersonal skills during the interview. Ask insightful questions about the team dynamics and how you can contribute to shaping the product and platform as it evolves.