Forward Deployed Engineer

LinuxRecruit; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

LinuxRecruit is seeking a builder-minded software engineer to join a fast-growing AI startup in Greater London. This role isn’t a traditional engineering position; you’ll move from understanding business flows with leadership to designing solutions and then building them, end-to-end.

You’ll own problems, work with customers to shape product direction, and deliver systems that sit at the intersection of AI, data, workflows and human behavior. Expect fast-paced, ambiguity, and high ownership.

Responsibilities

• Own problems end-to-end.
• Work directly with customers to understand needs.
• Design solutions and build them across AI, data, workflows.
• Operate between technical depth and commercial understanding.
• Collaborate with leadership to shape product direction.

Job description

Most AI companies are building tools. This team is building an AI department.

While the largest technology companies race towards the frontier, thousands of ambitious businesses are still trying to answer a much simpler question: how do we actually use AI to make our business better?

That's the problem this startup exists to solve.

Backed by an experienced founding team from some of Europe's most respected technology, consulting and product businesses, they're building a platform that helps mid-sized organisations identify, deploy and scale AI across their operations. Their customers range from professional servicesfirms through towealth management businesses, all looking to turn AI from an interesting experiment into a genuine competitive advantage.

The company is still early, around 10 people today. which means every hire matters.

Now they're lookingfor a FDEs. Not people looking for a comfortable engineering role. Someone who enjoys the grind, who likes walking into ambiguity and figuring things out, and who sees a messy collection of systems, people and processes and instinctively starts drawing connections.

The role isn't a traditional software engineering position. You might spend the morning sitting with the leadership team of a growing business understanding how work really flows through their organisation. By lunchtime you'll be designing a solution. By the afternoon you'll be building it.

You’ll own problems end-to-end.

You’ll work directly with customers, shape product direction, influence the evolution of the platform and build solutions that sit at the intersection of AI, data, workflows and human behaviour.

There are very few handoffs here.

You find the problem > You design the solution > You build it > You improve it.

You’ll probably enjoy this if...

• You've been described as intense.


• You've been great at something before. Maybe you founded a company. Maybe you joined a startup early and helped scale it. Maybe you've excelled in sport or another highly competitive environment.


• You care less about job titles and more about ownership


• You already spend your spare time experimenting with agents, AI tooling and new ways of working because you're genuinely curious.


• You enjoy strong opinions, healthy debate and being surrounded by people who challenge your thinking.


• You want to be in a room where everyone contributes.

This role would suit someone with a builder mentality. An engineer who can operate comfortably between technical depth and commercial understanding. Someone capable of discussing complex business challenges with senior stakeholders and then turning those conversations into working products. You’ll likely have experience in high-growth environments, startup ecosystems or highly demanding engineering cultures where autonomy and ownership are expected rather than encouraged. If you're looking for structure, certainty and a clearly defined lane, this probably isn't the role for you.