Software Engineer - UK

Location: Hybrid / Remote (UK-based)

Team: Engineering

Reports to: VP of Engineering

About SourceWhale

SourceWhale is a group of really smart people solving productivity problems for people-intensive industries using AI and automation. Founded in 2020, we are currently focused on automating the manual, tedious parts of sales and recruitment activities, empowering companies and their employees to get more done. The platform consolidates every stage of the industry's workflows into one sleek, integrated tool. Building alongside cutting-edge LLMs, SourceWhale is poised to be the company that puts the AI 'agent' in recruitment agencies. Voted one of The Sunday Times’ Best Places to Work (2025), we pursue innovation, champion employee wellbeing and offer fast-paced growth in a supportive transatlantic culture.

Our engineering team is a group of thoughtful, collaborative professionals who value quality, continuous improvement, and meaningful product outcomes over outputs. As we enter our next stage of growth, we’re on the lookout for a Software Engineer who wants to make an impact on a platform used all day, every working day, by thousands of people.

The Role

You’ll join a high-performing, collaborative engineering team building a product used constantly by modern recruiting teams. We’re a startup with high standards, where engineers are trusted owners, strong collaborators, and thoughtful product contributors. You’ll work across the stack, help shape the future of our architecture, and solve real customer problems with empathy and clarity. If you enjoy breadth, autonomy, and impactful work, you’ll thrive here.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and maintain product features end-to-end
• Develop scalable backend services (Python) and intuitive frontend components (Svelte/jQuery).
• Own your work from design and implementation through testing & deployment.
• Contribute to a high-quality, well-structured codebase
• Write maintainable, predictable, readable code.
• Build for reliability and long‑term health.
• Collaborate closely with product, QA, and other engineers
• Ask clarifying questions early, seek feedback, and communicate with precision.
• Work with QA as partners in quality - not downstream testers.
• Bring product thinking into engineering decisions
• Understand why a feature matters and how it impacts customers – we want missionaries, not mercenaries.
• Challenge assumptions, propose ideas, and help shape product direction.

What We’re Looking For

• Solid experience with Python for backend development.
• Experience with modern frontend development (Svelte and/or jQuery preferred, but not required).
• Familiarity with distributed systems, APIs, and integrations.
• Comfortable working across multiple surfaces and technologies.
• Experience with any of the following is a bonus (not required): AWS cloud services, Browser/email extensions, Third‑party API integrations, Large Language Models.

We hire for mindset as much as skill. You’ll thrive if you:

• Collaborate openly and generously.
• Think like an owner, taking responsibility from definition to delivery.
• Care deeply about quality, long‑term maintainability, and thoughtful design.
• Have strong product instincts, seeking context, understanding customer impact, and challenging assumptions.
• Communicate clearly, especially in ambiguous or high‑stakes situations.
• Adapt quickly, breaking down unclear problems into actionable steps.
• Seek continuous improvement, for yourself, your code, and your team.

We welcome candidates from diverse backgrounds, but the ideal profile includes:

• Experience building production features in a startup or scale‑up environment.
• Comfort working across the stack and across multiple product surfaces.
• Evidence of taking initiative, influencing teams without relying on authority, and raising issues early with constructive solutions.

These principles guide how we work and grow together:

• Teamwork: We collaborate openly, communicate honestly, and celebrate shared success.
• Product quality: We take pride in delivering robust, high‑impact solutions for our users.
• Peer leadership: We foster continuous learning, feedback, and accountability.

Our teams focus on sustained product outcomes, not one‑off projects. We deliver continuous value, evolve based on feedback, minimise dependencies, and operate with transparency and collective responsibility.

• 25 days annual leave (plus public holidays)
• MacBook + any additional tech or software you need
• Flexible working arrangements
• Private Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance through Aviva
• Income Protection Insurance
• Extended mental health cover and Employee Assistance Programme
• Compassionate leave policy
• Private pension contributions (Royal London)
• Monthly company social events
• Regular in‑person hackathons