Python Engineering Lead / Founding Engineer

Spectrum IT Recruitment
London, United Kingdom
Last week
£80,000 – £95,000 pa

Salary

£80,000 – £95,000 pa

Job Type
Permanent
Work Pattern
Full-time
Work Location
Remote
Seniority
Lead
Education
Degree
Posted
18 May 2026 (Last week)

Engineering Lead | Software Manager | Founding Engineer

  • Python - Agentic AI - FastAPI - CI/CD
  • Fully Remote (UK / Europe)

A small and talented team of talented engineers & data scientists are quietly building something interesting.

Well-backed and operating in the AI engineering space, they partner with PE backed businesses to solve complex technical and analytical problems - taking ideas from early concept through to production-grade systems.

They're still early enough that the engineering culture, ways of working, and technical direction are being shaped. With a team of around 15 today and plans to grow to 50 over the next 12 months, the foundations being laid now will matter. This is where you come in.

You'll join as a Founding Engineer / Engineering Lead, taking ownership of building production-grade systems (not just prototypes) in an environment where AI isn't a side project, it's central to what's being delivered.

The work is varied and delivery-focused. You might be designing APIs one week, thinking through async processing and scale the next, and then helping shape how something is deployed, monitored, and improved in production - often in real client environments.

This role is for someone who thinks commercially and works in partnership with clients to capture and design solutions from the ground up.

What we're looking for

  • Strong Python experience, particularly with asynchronous or distributed systems
  • Solid experience building APIs and backend services
  • Good understanding of cloud environments (Azure preferred), CI/CD, and deployment
  • Experience building and shipping systems used in real-world environments (ideally client-facing or delivery-led)
  • Someone who enjoys the craft of engineering, not just shipping code, but building things properly
  • A genuine interest in AI and how it's shaping modern software development

Why this role

  • Fully remote across the UK
  • Early-stage, but well-funded and already delivering real projects
  • A chance to influence how things are built as the team scales
  • Work that balances pace with quality, no endless POCs that go nowhere

If you're an engineer who reads about new tech out of curiosity, and you like the idea of being part of a team still figuring things out, this would be a great fit.

Hit apply or contact

Spectrum IT Recruitment (South) Limited is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

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