Polyglot software engineer (Southampton)

Polyglot Software Engineer

Hybrid – Southampton (1 day fortnightly) | £60–80k + Equity | Deep-Tech Startup | £60B Market Opportunity

We’re working with an early-stage deep-tech startup that’s gunning for a slice of the £60B SQL database market — and doing so with serious technical firepower.

Fresh off a £1.2M pre-seed and mid-way through a further £7M raise, they already have live enterprise customers and a product solving high-stakes, real-world problems. This is a true ground-floor opportunity — you’ll be working on core product and platform decisions, right as they scale their UK engineering team.

The Mission:

They’re building a platform that makes databases interchangeable — allowing enterprise applications to move seamlessly between different SQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, etc.) without rewriting core logic. Think: zero-downtime migrations, deep system integration, and high-performance virtualisation.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Building features for a next-gen database virtualisation platform
• Tackling performance, scalability, and system interoperability challenges
• Writing clean, well-tested code in multiple languages
• Working cross-functionally with product, DevOps, and architecture teams
• Helping shape the technical roadmap and scaling engineering processes

What You’ll Need:

• Proficiency in 3+ languages (e.g., C++, TypeScript, Python, Java, Rust)
• Strong fundamentals in algorithms, systems design, and data structures
• Experience with SQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle)
• Ability to pick up new tech fast and solve complex problems independently
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, early-stage environment

Nice to Have:

• Deep understanding of database internals or data migration
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP)
• Familiarity with CI/CD and DevOps tooling (e.g., GitHub Actions)

The Stack:

Linux, C++, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, LLVM

Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub, Azure

Why It’s Exciting:

✅ Join at the inflection point — live customers, big funding round, rapid growth ahead

✅ Take ownership of core engineering challenges that actually matter

✅ Be part of building something technically ambitious and commercially disruptive

✅ Equity on offer — strong long-term upside

This one’s perfect for engineers who love tough problems, clean design, and working across languages and platforms. If that’s you, drop me a message and let’s have a chat.