Vice President of Engineering (Founding Engineer) | AI x Enterprise Workflow

Hybrid in London. 2 to 3 days on site (Fitzrovia)

Pay: £180k to £200k base + up to 2% equity + benefits

Mission

Build the context and execution platform that lets enterprise AI agents do real work. Turn messy business knowledge into a usable context layer, and plain English processes into reliable, auditable, executable workflows. Real customers, seven figure ARR, strong pull to scale.

Responsibilities

• Own engineering strategy and delivery from 0 to 1 through scale, then raise the bar again
• Define the platform architecture and reliability roadmap across Python services and a React app
• Design the workflow engine with state, retries, idempotency, audit, and multi-tenant isolation
• Set SLOs and observability, manage incidents, and make on‑call boring
• Build and lead a high‑performing team. Org design, hiring, mentoring, standards, and SDLC
• Partner with founders and customers to turn outcomes into roadmap and measurable value
• Establish security, privacy, and change control that fits enterprise buyers without killing speed

Qualifications

• Track record leading engineering in product companies from ~0 to 10m ARR or similar scale‑ups
• Depth in systems and data; you have shipped enterprise‑grade platforms, not just features
• Strong Python background and fluency with modern web stacks. React exposure is helpful
• Practical cloud experience on AWS or GCP, containers, CI/CD, zero‑downtime rollouts
• Proven ability to hire, coach, and set engineering culture in small, high‑ownership teams
• Clear communication, product instincts, and comfort meeting users and enterprise stakeholders
• UK work rights and comfort with 2 to 3 days in the London office
• Nice to have: workflow engines, authorization models, knowledge graphs, or agent tooling

Why this is worth your time

• Own the core platform that customers rely on every day
• Significant equity with clear upside as the team and revenue scale
• Fast cycles, founder access, and a mandate to build the engine, the team, and the culture
• Real traction. Paying enterprises, visible impact, no AI theater

Process

• Brief founder screen
• Technical and architecture deep‑dive with the CTO
• Final with the founding team

No visa sponsorship at this stage. Adjustments available.

Understanding Recruitment is acting as an employment agency for this vacancy.

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and provide reasonable adjustments.