At a Glance
- Tasks: Join us to develop innovative AI solutions and tackle complex engineering challenges.
- Company: UnlikelyAI, a pioneering tech firm transforming the future of AI.
- Benefits: Hybrid work model, competitive salary, and a collaborative culture.
- Other info: Dynamic team atmosphere with opportunities for growth and innovation.
- Why this job: Be part of a team shaping cutting-edge AI technology with real-world impact.
- Qualifications: Strong Python skills and experience in software engineering, ideally in high-growth environments.
The predicted salary is between 70000 - 90000 Β£ per year.
About Us
At UnlikelyAI, we are building the future of AI: one that is reliable, accurate, and transparent. Our neurosymbolic technology harnesses the power of LLMs and generative AI, and combines it with Universal Language β our proprietary symbolic technology that bridges the gap between probabilistic machine learning and deterministic classical computing. Our products are already in use with major enterprises β including tier-1 banks and leading accountancy firms β across audit, compliance, and financial services. In compliance, we combine symbolic decision trees with LLM-powered evidence extraction to catch errors in financial reporting that human reviewers miss. In financial services, we use neurosymbolic guardrails to deliver accurate and explainable outcomes at scale. We are now building toward a platform β a public API and platform experience that will make our core neurosymbolic capabilities available to a broader set of customers and use cases. This is a pivotal moment: we're transitioning from bespoke customer engagements into a scalable product platform, and we need exceptional engineers to help us get there.
The Role
To meet the demands of our growing commercial momentum, we are looking for a smart, dedicated senior software engineer to join our team. We want someone who thrives on diving deep into code to solve challenging and novel problems. You will have extensive software engineering experience, with exceptional coding ability, ideally including experience in high-growth start-ups. This role will play a major part in developing our core capabilities, which span symbolic reasoning (decision trees, propositional graphs, knowledge graphs), document ingestion pipelines, and the APIs that expose these to customers. You'll work on genuinely novel problems at the intersection of classical symbolic AI and modern LLMs β for example, how to represent regulatory knowledge as machine-evaluable rules, or how to build feedback loops that improve system accuracy over time. You'll work within a shared monorepo alongside software engineers, research engineers, and applied scientists in a heavily cross-functional environment. We operate in small, focused product teams, supported by shared infrastructure, internal tooling, and an R&D function.
What You Might Work On
- Building the infrastructure for our new public API, including authentication, scalability, and developer documentation.
- Improving our document ingestion pipelines to handle new input formats (e.g. PDF, Word) and new regulatory jurisdictions.
- Developing evaluation frameworks and benchmarks to measure and improve system accuracy.
- Scaling our deployment approach for enterprise customers with specific cloud and security requirements.
- Improving internal tooling and developer experience across the monorepo.
- Working on the symbolic reasoning engine that powers our products β including decision tree evaluation, rule generation, and knowledge graph construction.
You'll be successful here if...
- you have strong proficiency in Python, including writing well-typed, well-tested code in a collaborative codebase.
- you've tackled complex algorithms and data structures and have experience working with non-trivial algorithmic problems.
- you care deeply about production-quality engineering β you have a track record of advocating for software quality, improving engineering standards, and championing best practices.
- you thrive with end-to-end ownership β you've led the process from ideation to production for brand-new software systems.
- you have experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred) β services such as S3, ECR, ECS/EKS, and infrastructure managed via Terraform or similar.
- you have a bias for action β you move quickly, make informed decisions, and iterate without waiting for perfect information.
- you have a relevant degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or STEM β or equivalent practical experience.
Other skills
You don't need to tick every box below, but any of the following would strengthen your application:
- Monorepo experience β comfortable working in a large, shared codebase with multiple product teams contributing.
- CI/CD pipelines β hands-on experience with GitHub Actions or similar.
- Experience with document processing pipelines β PDF parsing, OCR, structured data extraction.
- Familiarity with knowledge representation β decision trees, knowledge graphs, ontologies, or symbolic reasoning systems.
- Experience with LLM integration in production systems β prompt engineering, evaluation, working with APIs such as Gemini, Claude, or OpenAI.
- Frontend experience with React and TypeScript β we value engineers who can contribute across the stack when needed.
- Experience in regulated industries β fintech, audit, compliance, insurance, or banking.
- Familiarity with the modern Python tooling ecosystem: uv for package management, ruff for linting, pyright or similar type checkers.
- Experience with observability and monitoring tools such as Datadog.
How We Work
We're a team of around 30 people based primarily in the UK. We operate a hybrid working policy, with three days a week in our Central London office. Engineering is organised into product-focused squads, supported by shared infrastructure and an R&D function. We work in a monorepo, deploy to AWS, and care deeply about developer experience β we're actively investing in modernising our tooling, CI, and repository structure. We run hackathons, we have strong opinions about code quality (held loosely), and we ship often. Our culture is collaborative and low-ego: engineers regularly move between teams, pair on hard problems, and contribute ideas regardless of seniority. We take the work seriously, but not ourselves.
Senior Software Engineer employer: UnlikelyAI
Contact Detail:
UnlikelyAI Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice π€«
We think this is how you could land Senior Software Engineer
β¨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to current employees at UnlikelyAI on LinkedIn or other platforms. Ask them about their experiences and any tips they might have for the interview process. Personal connections can give you an edge!
β¨Tip Number 2
Prepare for technical interviews by brushing up on your coding skills. Use platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to practice problems that are relevant to the role. Remember, they want to see how you think and solve problems, so explain your thought process as you go!
β¨Tip Number 3
Showcase your passion for AI and software engineering during interviews. Share personal projects or contributions to open-source that align with UnlikelyAI's mission. This not only demonstrates your skills but also your enthusiasm for the field!
β¨Tip Number 4
Donβt forget to apply through our website! Itβs the best way to ensure your application gets seen. Plus, it shows youβre genuinely interested in being part of our team. Good luck!
We think you need these skills to ace Senior Software Engineer
Some tips for your application π«‘
Show Your Passion for AI: When writing your application, let us see your enthusiasm for AI and software engineering. Share any personal projects or experiences that highlight your interest in neurosymbolic technology or LLMs. We love seeing candidates who are genuinely excited about the field!
Tailor Your CV and Cover Letter: Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter to reflect the skills and experiences mentioned in the job description. Highlight your proficiency in Python, cloud infrastructure, and any relevant experience with document processing or symbolic reasoning. This helps us see how you fit into our team!
Be Clear and Concise: Keep your application clear and to the point. Use bullet points where possible to make it easy for us to read through your qualifications and experiences. We appreciate a well-structured application that gets straight to the good stuff!
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to apply directly through our website. Itβs the best way for us to receive your application and ensures youβre considered for the role. Plus, it shows us youβre keen on joining our team at UnlikelyAI!
How to prepare for a job interview at UnlikelyAI
β¨Know Your Tech Inside Out
Make sure you brush up on your Python skills and be ready to discuss your experience with complex algorithms and data structures. Be prepared to dive deep into your past projects, especially those involving cloud infrastructure like AWS, as this will show your technical prowess.
β¨Showcase Your Problem-Solving Skills
During the interview, expect to tackle some challenging problems. Practice explaining your thought process clearly and logically. Highlight any experiences where you've taken ownership of a project from ideation to production, as this aligns perfectly with what theyβre looking for.
β¨Familiarise Yourself with Their Products
Take some time to understand UnlikelyAI's neurosymbolic technology and how it integrates with LLMs. Being able to discuss their products and how you can contribute to their development will demonstrate your genuine interest in the role and the company.
β¨Emphasise Collaboration and Quality
UnlikelyAI values a collaborative culture, so be ready to share examples of how you've worked effectively in teams. Discuss your commitment to software quality and best practices, as this will resonate well with their focus on production-quality engineering.