Engineering Lead

CarbonTrac; Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

CarbonTrac is an early-stage UK company building a nutrition intelligence engine that is already recognised by the UN and ITU. We’re seeking a technologist who will own and productionise the engine, turn it into APIs and dashboards, and lead integrations with retail and health partners.

You will own security, reliability and cost-efficiency, collaborate with executives and advisory boards, and build and lead the engineering team as we grow.

Qualifications

• Experience with proprietary AI/ML architectures and production-grade deployment.
• Track record turning technical systems into customer-facing products.
• Experience building enterprise integrations and APIs.
• Hands-on cloud and security experience.
• Ownership of a system end-to-end.

Responsibilities

• Own and extend the proprietary AI engine, refining and productionising it.
• Turn the engine into products: APIs, dashboards and partner features.
• Build integrations with retailer and health partner systems.
• Own security, access control, encryption, monitoring and reviews.
• Lead engineering, recruit and scale the team.

Skills

Python

SQL

Data engineering

APIs integration

Machine learning

Cloud platforms

Security

Ownership

End-to-end

Production-grade

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

CI/CD

Job description

CarbonTrac’s proprietary nutrition intelligence engine was named a top AI use case by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) this year. The core is built. Your job is to turn it into products that retailers and health partners rely on: polish and strengthen the architecture, build integrations, harden security and get it ready for market.

This is a rare early-stage role. You’ll own a proprietary AI system that’s already working, not a blank page or an LLM wrapper. You’ll work alongside our technical advisors, including senior executives from Fortune 500 companies, and with UN agencies and other leading innovators. As we grow, you’ll build and lead the engineering team.

What you’ll do

• Take ownership of our proprietary engine: learn it deeply, then refine, optimise and extend it
• Turn the engine into products: APIs, dashboards and partner-ready features
• Build integrations with retailer and health partner systems: data ingestion, secure data transfer and reliable pipelines
• Own security: access control, encryption, monitoring, penetration testing and partners’ security reviews
• Strengthen how we test and evidence our results, with the Nutrition Science Lead and our scientific advisory board
• Support go-to-market with the Commercial Lead: technical demos, partner onboarding and answering technical questions in deals
• Keep the platform reliable, scalable and cost-efficient
• Own the technical side of R&D tax credit claims, IP and investor technical due diligence
• Hire and lead the engineering team as we grow

First 6 months: what success looks like

• The engine packaged and running in production, secure and ready for partners
• Our first partner integration live and running reliably
• A technical roadmap the team and investors understand

Must have

• Experience or a real passion for nutrition, food or public health
• Experience working with complex, proprietary AI or ML architectures: you can take a system someone else built, understand it deeply and make it production-grade
• A track record of turning technical systems into products customers use
• Experience building integrations with enterprise systems and APIs
• Strong Python, SQL and data engineering, with solid machine learning foundations
• Hands‑on cloud (AWS, GCP or Azure) and security experience
• Ownership: you’ve run a system end to end
• You explain technical trade‑offs clearly to partners and investors

Nice to have

• Experience with retail, transaction or health data
• Cyber security certifications or experience preparing for ISO 27001 or SOC 2
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers
• Own a proprietary AI system that’s already recognised by the UN, at the start of its growth
• Learn from technical advisors who have built and scaled systems at Fortune 500 companies
• Work at the intersection of AI, health and climate, alongside UN agencies and world‑class partners
• A clear path to build and lead the engineering team as we grow

We care more about what you’ve built than about years of experience or a title.