Founding Engineering Lead (Hands-on) – AI SaaS | London / Hybrid
(Equity > Base salary – real ownership on offer)
I’m working with the founder of an early-stage, AI-driven B2B SaaS startup to hire their (Founding) Engineering Lead – someone who still loves to code, but is ready/ has lead a small team previously.
This won’t suit someone optimising for the highest possible base salary right now.
It will suit someone who wants meaningful equity and ownership and believes in the upside of building from (almost) the start.
Role
* Title: (Founding) Engineering Lead – path to Head of Engineering
* Location: Greater London (Hybrid: 1–2 days/week)
* Stage: Early-stage B2B SaaS, AI/LLM powered
* Team: Grow engineering from 2 → ~8 by end of 2026
* Reporting to: Founder & CEO
You’ll be the technical owner: shipping product, setting the engineering tempo, and building the team around you.
* Be a player–coach: mostly hands-on at first (architecture, coding, reviews, shipping), with strategy and people leadership growing over time.
* Set the cadence: high-velocity releases, tight feedback loops, pragmatic decisions.
* Own the architecture and technical direction – fast now, scalable later, no over-engineering.
* Act as the Founder’s technical right hand, turning product vision into a delivery plan.
* Implement lightweight process (CI/CD, reviews, QA) that accelerates, not blocks.
* Lead AI/LLM integration into a robust, real-world SaaS product.
* Hire and shape the early engineering team and culture.
Tech & Profile
* Stack: Python and/or TypeScript, Azure (Functions/Containers), Kubernetes (managed), MongoDB Atlas, event-driven where it helps.
* Experience: ~4–8 years, including at least 1 year in a real startup (Seed–Series B).
* You’re a strong hands-on engineer who’s led or mentored a small squad and is ready to own the function.
* Comfortable with cloud-native development and building products that incorporate AI (no need to be a data scientist).
* Direct, clear communicator – you surface risks early and don’t hide behind jargon or process
If you’d back yourself in a high-velocity, early-stage environment and want real technical ownership + equity, I’d love to speak.