At a Glance
- Tasks: Own backend services and design secure infrastructure for AI-native risk solutions.
- Company: Seed-stage company revolutionising risk infrastructure for banks, hospitals, and insurers.
- Benefits: Competitive pay, equity options, and a chance to shape the future of AI technology.
- Other info: Collaborate directly with founders and enjoy a hands-on role in innovative projects.
- Why this job: Join a dynamic team and make a real impact in a fast-growing startup environment.
- Qualifications: 6+ years backend experience, strong TypeScript or Node.js skills, and compliance knowledge.
The predicted salary is between 90000 - 110000 £ per year.
A seed-stage company building AI-native risk infrastructure for regulated enterprises such as banks, hospitals, and insurers. They need a platform that's secure, compliant, and trustable enough to win multi-year contracts, not just pilot projects.
Four people on the engineering team. You would be the fifth. They hit seven-figure revenue within months of launch, closed an oversubscribed seed round, and are tracking toward Series A. This is not a pre-revenue bet.
What you'll actually do:
- Own the backend services end to end: architecture, build, deployment, operation
- Design and manage the infrastructure layer: Azure, Terraform, CI/CD
- Build multi-tenant isolation across compute, data, and network layers
- Implement compliance controls for SOC 2 and ISO 27001
- Ship product features alongside infrastructure work. You are not just the infra person
- Work directly with the founding team on architecture decisions, tradeoffs, and what to build next
- Use AI tooling (Claude Code, etc.) as a force multiplier in your daily workflow
Who you are:
You are a CTO-level engineer who wants to go back to being an IC. You think about architecture, users, and shipping in equal measure. You've built production systems that needed to be both fast and auditable, and you understand why those two things sometimes conflict.
What you need to have:
- 6+ years of backend engineering experience with clear infrastructure ownership
- Production experience with Terraform and CI/CD pipelines
- Strong professional TypeScript or Node.js experience
- You've designed and implemented compliance controls (SOC 2, ISO 27001) and security posture (IAM, network segmentation)
- You're based in London or willing to relocate on-site
What I'll lean toward (but won't require):
- Azure experience (Container Apps, Service Bus, Front Door, Entra ID)
- You've designed multi-tenant SaaS isolation before
- You've built production LLM platforms, RAG systems, or agentic workflows
- Entrepreneurial signals: side projects, former founder, technical talks
What doesn't fit this role:
- Current or recent DevRel or DevEx roles
- Pure front-end engineering without backend and infrastructure scope
- Pure cybersecurity specialists without product engineering experience
- Big-company engineers who've never owned production in a startup context
Interview process:
- Behavioural phone screen with the founder
- Technical phone screen
- Paid 1-day on-site work trial (GBP 1,000/day)
No take-home assignments. No whiteboard algorithms. You'll do real work with the team.
The criteria I screen CVs for:
- Have you owned infrastructure (Terraform, CI/CD) in a production environment for 2+ years, not just set it up once?
- Can you point to a system where you designed and implemented compliance or security controls (SOC 2, ISO 27001, IAM, network segmentation)?
- Is your core backend language TypeScript, Node.js, or Go, and have you shipped customer-facing features in it, not just internal tooling?
- Is there evidence of startup-style ownership: making architecture tradeoffs, shipping under constraints, operating what you built?
Founding Engineer, Infrastructure & Platform in London employer: Whyhirewrong?
Join a top-tier global trading firm that values exceptional talent and offers a fully remote working environment from the UK, Netherlands, or France. With a focus on employee growth, you will have the opportunity to work on performance-critical systems alongside traders and quant researchers, while enjoying highly competitive compensation benchmarked to market rates. Our culture promotes innovation and collaboration, ensuring that your contributions are recognised and impactful in the fast-paced world of electronic trading.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Founding Engineer, Infrastructure & Platform in London
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We think you need these skills to ace Founding Engineer, Infrastructure & Platform in London
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 Whyhirewrong?.
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How to prepare for a job interview at Whyhirewrong?
✨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.
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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.
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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.
