Lead Software Engineer

Founding Lead Engineer | AI/Cybersecurity Startup | Remote (UK) | £120K-£140K + Equity

This startup is led by founders who've lived on opposite sides of the audit table - breaking systems and selling controls - and watched the governance gap between AI-generated code and regulated deployment widen into a category-defining problem.

They've already secured partnerships with household names in banking and insurance, are closing a 7-figure pre-seed backed by specialist VC and high-net-worth operators, and are on course for a very exciting couple of years.

The role

First engineering hire. You'll be joining alongside a product owner coming from a world-leading AI platform, with a further 6-7 engineers planned across 2026.

You'll be the technical backbone of a growing team - setting the architectural direction, making the stack decisions that carry the company through its next phase, and playing a genuine leadership role as the team around you scales.

Backend-first, full-stack when needed. The current MVP was built in Node.js and Supabase - if you can make the case for something better, they'll listen.

Who they're looking for

Two profiles are equally interesting:

• Someone who has reached Senior or Staff level inside a scaling cybersecurity or developer tooling company and is ready to take everything they've learned and own something end to end for the first time.

• Or someone who has already been through a full startup lifecycle, built enterprise systems that banks, insurers or regulated organisations genuinely rely on, and wants to do it again - this time from the very beginning.

In both cases the non-negotiables are:

• Substantial backend experience with strong architectural opinions and the depth to back them up
• You've built software that enterprises actually depend on - systems with real compliance, reliability and audit requirements baked in
• Comfortable across modern backend languages - Go, Python, TypeScript, Node.js - and able to make the right stack choices rather than execute within someone else's
• Background in cybersecurity or developer tooling is a strong advantage
• Hungry for a meaningful equity outcome and energised by a clear, aggressive exit thesis

What's on offer

• £120,000 - £140,000 base with a contracted ARR milestone uplift - written into the offer, not a vague promise
• Meaningful percentage points of founding equity structured for a clear exit thesis - not basis points, not options that vest into nothing
• Remote-first, occasional London visits when it makes sense. UK-based preferred

The process

Intro conversation with both founders, full pitch deck and technical plan shared if there's mutual interest, decision follows shortly after.

Hired exclusively through Reuben Jenkins at Techmunity - apply now or email reuben@techmunity.io