Founding Engineer - React Developer - NestJS Stack - Fintech - Startup

Founding Engineer - React Developer - NestJS Stack - Fintech - Startup

We're looking for a Founding Engineer to build alongside us. You'll work directly with our CTO to design, ship, and own product end-to-end, from ideation through deployment. You'll make real architectural decisions that matte r, write code that touches real customers, and help turn early chaos into something that scales.

You'll be expected to bring opinions, spot problems early, and move fast with high autonomy. You'll generate your own direction, make calls under uncertainty, and thrive when the path ahead is still being figured out. The people who do best here get energised by ambiguity and prefer to ship then refine.

You will own a meaningful chunk of this company (1.5%) meaning as we grow to series A, the value of your shares (£97,500) will grow by 5x to 10x.

What You'll Do

  • Ship fast. Build and deploy core features end-to-end across our React + NestJS stack
  • Own problems. Take product from idea to experiment to production - the full journey, end-to-end
  • Shape architecture. Make foundational decisions on how we build; you'll leave a mark on the codebase
  • Close the loop on customers. Expect weekly product feedback; build for real, validated pain
  • Be a sparring partner. Bring problems to the table, research solutions, discuss tradeoffs, then execute
  • Think like an owner. Every decision you make should move us closer to product-market fit or revenue
  • Build the culture. Help define our engineering principles as the first or second engineer here

Where This Leads

In 18-24 months, you may be leading a team of engineers - or have built so much product that the team forms around you. You'll receive meaningful equity, own core parts of the codebase, and accumulate rare 0 to 1 experience. If you ever want to become a CTO, Engineering Leader, or founder yourself, this is the role that gets you there.

What You Bring

The non-negotiables:

  • 3+ years of engineering experience
  • Strong in React and comfortable across the full JS/TS stack
  • Backend experience: REST APIs, NestJS or Express, MongoDB or similar
  • Evidence of building something independently: a side project, open source contributions, a startup, or anything demonstrating you create under your own initiative
  • At least one role at a company under ~50 people; you understand what it means to move fast with limited resources
  • High agency and a default-to-action mindset, you make calls under uncertainty rather than waiting for more information

Genuinely useful bonus points:

  • You've been a founder, or seriously considered it
  • You're genuinely AI-native. A real AI dev workflow: Claude Code, Cursor, concurrent agents, cloud agents. We'll ask about your stack and process.
  • Experience with AWS and CDK
  • Familiarity with CI/CD, TDD, DevOps
  • UI/UX design skills - an eye for what good product looks and feels like

Our Tech Stack

  • React/Next.js (Front End)
  • NestJS/Express (Back End)
  • MongoDB
  • AWS + CDK (infrastructure)
  • Stytch (Auth)
  • SOC 2 Compliant

Interested? Please Apply!

React NestJS Next.js MongoDB AI Automation Automate Lead Engineer Lead Developer AWS CDK StartUp Start-Up Founding Engineer Principle Engineer React Developer Fullstack Developer FullStack Developer Full-Stack Developer Full Stack Developer Software Engineer Next.js

Job Details

Company
Rothstein Recruitment Ltd
Location
London, United Kingdom
Employment Type
Permanent
Salary
GBP 75,000 - 95,000 Annual
Posted