Lead Software Engineer

Job Title: Lead Software Engineer

Location: United Kingdom

Work Pattern: Fully remote (UK-based preferred)

Salary: £80,000–£90,000 + Equity

Job Position: Permanent

This position does not offer sponsorship

Our client is building the next generation of personal finance for the UK — think Cleo or Emma, but powered by real intelligence.

Their app connects to users’ bank accounts via Open Banking and uses AI to analyse conversations and transactions to deliver hyper-personalised financial recommendations.

They have built the foundations. Now they're looking for a hands-on, senior full-stack engineer to help us scale from MVP to a live, multi-featured consumer product and build the engineering team that will take us there.

What You’ll Do

• Own and evolve the product architecture — from Open Banking integrations to AI-driven recommendation systems.
• Lead development of the mobile app (React Native) and backend (Node.js or Python/FastAPI).
• Integrate with Open Banking APIs (TrueLayer, Yapily, etc.) to securely connect and manage financial data.
• Design and implement pipelines to analyse transaction data and user conversations using embeddings and vector databases (Pinecone, Qdrant, etc.).
• Ensure best practice in data security and compliance, including OAuth2, GDPR, and encrypted storage.
• Collaborate closely with founders and product to shape features, scale infrastructure, and make technical decisions.
• Play a key role in hiring and mentoring future engineers as we expand post-funding.

Who You Are

• A senior-level full-stack engineer (4–6 years’ experience) comfortable taking technical ownership in a fast-paced startup.
• Proficient with React Native (or strong React + mobile experience).
• Backend experience with Node.js or Python (FastAPI/Django) and RESTful API design.
• Experience integrating Open Banking APIs (TrueLayer, Yapily, Salt Edge, etc.).
• Hands-on experience with AI / LLM-powered systems — especially embedding models (OpenAI, Cohere, Sentence Transformers) and vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS, Chroma).
• Strong understanding of secure data practices and compliance standards.
• Excellent communicator — able to translate complex technical ideas to non-technical founders.
• Calm, methodical, and collaborative — a natural problem-solver who can manage multiple workstreams (features, tickets, AI, UX) simultaneously.
• Experience in financial app development or working within regulated fintech environments is a big plus.

Why Join

• Be the technical backbone of a venture-backed fintech at a pivotal moment — scaling from MVP to live product.
• Shape the engineering culture and help build a team around you post-funding.
• Flexible structure — choose between higher salary/lower equity or vice versa.
• Fully remote team (UK preferred) with occasional meetups in London.
• Work alongside founders who value autonomy, communication, and long-term impact over quick fixes.

Tech Stack Snapshot

React Native • Node.js / FastAPI • TypeScript • PostgreSQL • Pinecone / Qdrant • OpenAI / Cohere APIs • TrueLayer / Yapily (Open Banking) • AWS

This role suits someone who’s built apps end-to-end, thrives on ownership, and is ready to take the next step toward technical leadership.

Apply or drop Jade a message to express your interest!