Lead Engineer - Stealth AI Startup (PropTech)

Lead Engineer / Founding Engineer – Stealth AI Startup (PropTech)

London | 2–3 days per week in-office (relocation £ available)

c£100,000 + Equity

We’re working with a stealth-mode, venture-backed AI startup that’s building an intelligent platform to reinvent how the PropTech industry operates.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role, perfect for an experienced Senior Engineer ready to step into a Lead position , help shape the product and architecture from day one, and work closely with the founding team to bring an ambitious AI-enabled vision to life.

You’ll write production code, make key technical decisions, and play a defining role in building both the core product and the engineering foundations as the business scales.

This is an AI-enabled product, so curiosity and initiative is crucial: you’ve explored personal or side projects involving LLMs , LangChain , or AI APIs .

What You’ll Do

• Stay hands-on: ship high-quality code, build scalable systems, and design data-driven APIs.
• Lead technical direction and help shape the product roadmap alongside the founders.
• Build, test, and deploy AI-powered features, integrating LLMs and ML pipelines directly into the product.
• Take ownership of technical delivery, from architecture to deployment, across an evolving stack.
• Collaborate with a small, talented team to rapidly move from idea to live product.
• Contribute to building an engineering culture that values speed, creativity, and clarity.

What We’re Looking For

• Based in London or willing to relocate (relocation support available).
• 5–10 years’ software engineering experience with a proven track record of shipping production systems (not just managing teams).
• Deep experience in backend development, ideally with Python, FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, and PostgreSQL .
• A genuine interest in AI — you’ve built or integrated AI/LLM-driven tools, experimented with AI frameworks, or used AI-assisted coding tools.
• Curiosity and initiative: you’ve explored personal or side projects involving LLMs , LangChain , or AI APIs .
• Strong delivery mindset — you move fast, write clean, maintainable code, and iterate quickly.
• Comfortable in early-stage environments where priorities evolve and autonomy is key.
• Some experience mentoring or leading small teams is ideal but not essential; this is a role for a builder first, leader second .

Tech Snapshot

• Languages: Python 3.11+, TypeScript
• Frameworks: FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, Alembic
• Infrastructure: AWS (IAM, SES, Bedrock)
• Architecture: Event-driven, API-first, AI-integrated pipelines
• Databases: PostgreSQL

Why This Role

• Step up from Senior Engineer to Lead Engineer in a venture-backed AI startup.
• Shape the product, stack, and engineering standards from the very start.
• Work side-by-side with experienced founders on a bold, technically ambitious mission.
• Build real, AI-enabled systems that have tangible impact.
• Earn meaningful equity and genuine ownership of what you build.
• Hybrid working model, 2–3 days per week in London’s Moorgate offices.

Screening Focus

To help us get to know you better, please be ready to discuss:

• Which AI coding tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot, Cody, ChatGPT, Replit AI, etc.) you use in your workflow.
• How you’ve implemented AI/LLM features in recent projects or products.
• Any personal or experimental AI projects you’ve built or contributed to.

If you’re a hands-on engineer who’s passionate about AI, loves solving complex problems, and wants to help build something ground-breaking from the ground up, we’d love to hear from you.