Founding Engineer in London

Founding Engineer in London

London Full-Time 128000 - 176000 £ / year (est.) Working from home possible
Recruiting From Scratch

At a Glance

  • Tasks: Build and scale AI platforms, automate workflows, and develop customer-facing products.
  • Company: Join a pioneering AI startup transforming enterprise operations with innovative technology.
  • Benefits: Competitive salary, equity options, O-1 visa sponsorship, and significant ownership.
  • Other info: Dynamic startup environment with high growth potential and early equity opportunities.
  • Why this job: Shape the future of enterprise AI and work directly with founders and customers.
  • Qualifications: 4+ years in software engineering, strong full-stack skills, and experience with AI products.

The predicted salary is between 128000 - 176000 £ per year.

Recruiting from Scratch is a premier talent firm that focuses on placing the best product managers, software, and hardware talent at innovative companies. Our team is 100% remote and we work with teams across the United States to help them hire.

Location: London, UK / San Francisco, CA (Onsite – 5 Days/Week)

Company Stage of Funding: Seed-Stage AI + Agentic AI + Enterprise SaaS

Office Type: Onsite (5 Days/Week)

Salary: $160,000 – $220,000 Base

Equity: 0.8% – 1.2%

Bonus: Competitive

Total Compensation

Visa: O-1 Sponsorship Available

Company Description

Our client is building the trust layer for enterprise by creating agentic AI systems that automate audit, compliance, and risk workflows traditionally performed manually by large enterprise teams. The platform leverages modern LLMs and agent architectures to process highly unstructured enterprise data, transforming spreadsheets, audit evidence, compliance records, and operational documentation into auditable and traceable outputs. Backed by a leading venture capital firm and already serving Fortune 500 and Magnificent Seven customers, the company has achieved strong early product-market fit and is rapidly scaling its engineering team.

The platform powers:

  • Agentic AI Workflows
  • Enterprise Audit Automation
  • Compliance Operations
  • AI-Powered Risk Management
  • Unstructured Data Processing
  • Spreadsheet Intelligence
  • Enterprise Knowledge Systems
  • LLM-Based Automation
  • Workflow Orchestration
  • Enterprise Decision Support

Engineering challenges include:

  • Enterprise-grade AI agent development
  • LLM orchestration systems
  • Agent evaluation frameworks
  • Unstructured data processing pipelines
  • Spreadsheet and document intelligence
  • Human-in-the-loop workflows
  • Enterprise-scale AI deployments
  • Full-stack product ownership
  • AI reliability and auditability
  • Customer-facing enterprise software

The company operates at the intersection of AI, enterprise software, compliance, and workflow automation, offering engineers the opportunity to build category-defining AI products with direct customer impact.

The culture values:

  • Ownership
  • Curiosity
  • Entrepreneurial Thinking
  • Technical Excellence
  • Product Sense
  • Customer Obsession
  • Speed
  • Pragmatism
  • Learning Velocity
  • End-to-End Execution

What You Will Do

  • Build and scale the backbone of the company's core AI platform
  • Develop enterprise-grade AI agents that automate audit and compliance workflows
  • Design and implement systems that process highly unstructured enterprise data
  • Build full-stack product features from concept through deployment
  • Own agent orchestration, evaluation, and workflow infrastructure
  • Develop data processing pipelines that transform raw enterprise data into structured outputs
  • Build customer-facing product experiences and internal tooling
  • Design backend architectures and APIs supporting AI workflows
  • Improve AI system reliability, traceability, and performance
  • Collaborate directly with enterprise customers to understand requirements
  • Help shape product roadmap and technical strategy
  • Build deployment infrastructure and operational tooling
  • Own features from design through production deployment
  • Contribute to architecture and engineering standards
  • Participate in technical design reviews and product discussions
  • Work closely with founders on company and product direction
  • Establish engineering best practices as an early team member
  • Help scale the engineering organization as the company grows
  • Operate with significant ownership across the entire product stack

Ideal Candidate Background

  • 4+ years of software engineering experience
  • Experience shipping AI-powered or agentic products to production
  • Strong full-stack engineering experience
  • Experience building enterprise-grade B2B software
  • Experience owning products end-to-end
  • Strong TypeScript experience
  • Experience working with LLM APIs and AI systems
  • AWS infrastructure and deployment experience
  • Experience building data processing pipelines
  • Experience operating in startup or early-stage environments
  • Strong product ownership mindset
  • Experience building customer-facing software products
  • Strong backend architecture and API design skills
  • Experience scaling production systems
  • Strong communication and collaboration skills
  • Comfortable working directly with customers when needed
  • Ability to thrive in highly ambiguous environments
  • Strong technical judgment and execution

Strong Signals

  • Shipped AI products to production
  • Built agentic AI systems
  • Experience with LLM orchestration
  • Prompt engineering experience
  • Agent evaluation frameworks
  • AI workflow automation experience
  • End-to-end AI product ownership
  • Enterprise AI deployments

Founder & Startup Signals

  • Founder experience
  • Founding engineer experience
  • Early employee at startup
  • Startup CTO experience
  • Built products from scratch
  • Entrepreneurial mindset
  • Significant ownership history
  • Experience operating on small teams

Enterprise Software Signals

  • B2B SaaS experience
  • Enterprise software experience
  • Customer-facing product ownership
  • Compliance or audit workflow exposure
  • Enterprise automation products
  • Workflow management systems
  • Data-heavy product experience
  • Customer discovery involvement

Bonus Signals

  • Audit technology experience
  • Compliance software experience
  • Risk management platforms
  • Financial operations products
  • Enterprise workflow automation
  • Spreadsheet intelligence systems
  • Document processing systems
  • Customer-facing technical leadership

Compensation & Benefits

  • Base Salary: $160,000 – $220,000
  • 0.8% – 1.2% Equity
  • O-1 Visa Sponsorship Available
  • Significant Ownership and Autonomy
  • Founding Engineer Opportunity
  • Direct Access to Founders
  • Opportunity to Shape Product Roadmap
  • Enterprise Customer Exposure
  • High-Growth Startup Environment
  • Early Equity Upside
  • Small Team with Outsized Impact
  • Strong Product-Market Fit
  • Career Growth Opportunity

Why Join

This is an opportunity to become one of the first engineers at a company that has already achieved meaningful product-market fit with Fortune 500 customers. Rather than maintaining existing systems, you'll help define the future of enterprise AI by building agentic workflows that automate highly complex and historically manual processes. You'll work across the entire stack, from AI infrastructure and data processing pipelines to customer-facing product experiences and enterprise deployments. The role offers a rare combination of AI innovation, founding-level ownership, enterprise customer exposure, and significant equity upside. If you enjoy building products from scratch, working directly with founders and customers, and shaping the future of enterprise AI, this role offers exceptional scope and career upside.

Founding Engineer in London employer: Recruiting From Scratch

This dynamic technology firm in New York is an excellent employer, offering a hybrid work environment that promotes collaboration and flexibility. With a strong focus on employee growth, the company provides opportunities to work on innovative projects that have real-world impact, alongside competitive compensation and benefits. Join a culture that values creativity and technical excellence, where your contributions directly influence the development of cutting-edge solutions.

Recruiting From Scratch

Contact Details:

Recruiting From Scratch Recruitment Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫

We think this is how you could land Founding Engineer in London

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 Recruiting From Scratch 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 Recruiting From Scratch.

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 Recruiting From Scratch.

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 Recruiting From Scratch 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 in London

Software Engineering
AI Product Development
Full-Stack Engineering
TypeScript
LLM APIs
AWS Infrastructure
Data Processing Pipelines

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 Recruiting From Scratch.

Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Recruiting From Scratch 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 Recruiting From Scratch

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 Recruiting From Scratch 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.