The Lanes Group
Founding Engineer
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Founding Engineer - Cambridge
Location: Cambridge (Hybrid) Salary: £80,000 - £120,000 + Significant Equity
About Our Client
Our client is an early-stage AI technology startup founded by an experienced leadership team and backed by external investment. They are building their core product from the ground up and are looking for a Founding Engineer to become one of the first technical hires into the business.
The Role
This is a high-impact opportunity for an experienced engineer who enjoys building products from zero to one. You will work directly with the founders, influence major technology decisions and help establish the engineering standards, architecture and culture that will underpin the company as it scales.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and build the first production versions of the company's core platform.
- Work directly with the founders to translate product ideas into working software.
- Make key decisions around architecture, technology stack and infrastructure.
- Build scalable backend services, APIs and customer-facing functionality.
- Develop integrations with AI and machine learning services where appropriate.
- Establish engineering practices covering testing, deployment, observability and security.
- Speak with early customers and rapidly iterate the product based on feedback.
- Help recruit and mentor future engineers as the technical team grows.
- Take broad ownership across product engineering in a fast-moving startup environment.
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Skills & Experience
- Strong commercial software engineering experience, ideally within startups or product-led technology companies.
- Excellent programming skills with Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Go or similar modern languages.
- Experience building and deploying cloud-based applications on AWS, Azure or GCP.
- Strong knowledge of APIs, databases, system design and modern software architecture.
- Comfortable working with ambiguity and taking ownership of problems end-to-end.
- Interest or experience in AI, machine learning, LLMs or data-intensive products would be beneficial.
- Previous startup, founding engineer or early-stage product experience is highly desirable.
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Package
Salary: £80,000 - £120,000 + Significant Equity
Location: Cambridge - hybrid working
- Annual performance bonus and/or equity depending on role
- Private healthcare
- Enhanced employer pension contribution
- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
- Flexible working arrangements
- Learning, development and leadership budget
- Clear progression and significant influence over technology strategy
Apply
If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply with your latest CV. Suitable applicants will be contacted to discuss the position, organisation and package in more detail.
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