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Founding Engineer

CleraWorldwidePosted 16d agoonsite
via Arbeitnow

About the Role

This is a rare opportunity to join a seed-stage AI infrastructure company as a Founding Engineer — one of the earliest technical hires working directly alongside the founders. You'll help build a novel infrastructure product that serves as the backbone for next-generation AI applications: coding assistants, agent orchestration systems, and beyond.

You'll have a direct hand in shaping the company's technical direction, architecture decisions, and culture. If you're motivated by deep ownership, fast learning, and building systems that matter at scale, this role is for you.

What You'll Do

  • Design and build core backend services in Go (Golang) that handle high-traffic, low-latency workloads at scale

  • Architect and evolve a pragmatic microservices platform running on Kubernetes — and redefine the stack as needs grow

  • Build and maintain high-quality API platforms with a focus on reliability, performance, and developer experience

  • Implement and optimise distributed caching and database layers (SQL, NoSQL, distributed caches)

  • Profile and tune systems for performance under production-scale, high-traffic conditions

  • Contribute to auxiliary and ML/AI services in Python where needed

  • Work closely with founders to influence product direction and technical roadmap

What We're Looking For

Required:

  • 5+ years of experience building backend services in a compiled language — Go (Golang) strongly preferred

  • Proven experience with distributed systems design and scalability

  • Strong expertise in databases and caching systems (SQL/NoSQL and caching layers); ability to select and apply the right tool for the job

  • Kubernetes expertise in production environments

  • Experience building or designing API platforms with a strong focus on quality and design

  • Experience with performance profiling and optimisation for high-traffic systems

  • Background in early-stage startups or greenfield/founding-engineer-type projects

  • Ability to design both scalable and pragmatic architectures appropriate to the product stage

  • Deep understanding of concurrency and when/how to apply it

  • Strong grasp of tradeoffs between quality, speed, and completeness — you know that "minimal" ≠ "broken"

  • Self-starter who learns new technologies independently and proactively

Nice to Have:

  • Familiarity with LLM ecosystems, AI gateway concepts, or ML/AI service infrastructure

  • Experience at high-calibre engineering organisations (e.g. large cloud providers, enterprise software companies)

  • Ambitions to found your own startup someday — we love that energy

Tech Stack

  • Core services: Go (Golang)

  • Auxiliary/ML services: Python

  • Infrastructure: Kubernetes (microservices architecture)

  • Data: SQL databases + distributed caches

Expect this list to evolve — you'll likely be the one driving those changes.

Compensation & Benefits

  • Generous total compensation package

  • Significant equity stake — meaningful ownership from day one

Location

  • On-site in London, United Kingdom

  • Visa sponsorship is not available — candidates must have the right to work in the UK

Find more English Speaking Jobs in United Kingdom on Arbeitnow

Skills

  • Engineering

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