Founding Engineer

Understanding Recruitment; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Understanding Recruitment is partnering with an early-stage AI startup to hire its first dedicated Frontend Engineer. You’ll own the entire user experience from the ground up, shipping high-performance, AI-native interfaces in TypeScript & React.

You’ll shape frontend strategy, UX/UI, and product interactions in a fast-paced, founder-led environment, with real ownership and a hands-on approach to frontend architecture.

Qualifications

• 5-10 years experience in startup or customer-facing product environments
• Strong product intuition and a sharp eye for UX/UI
• Ability to ship quickly and iterate with users
• Desire to own frontend strategy, not just implement tickets
• Experience building developer tools or highly interactive products (e.g., IDEs)

Responsibilities

• Own and shape the entire frontend experience from ground up
• Build high-performance, real-time AI-native interfaces
• Craft intuitive UX for complex autonomous workflows
• Develop beautiful, responsive frontend systems in TypeScript & React
• Influence product direction and frontend architecture

Skills

TypeScript

React

Product mindset

Ownership

UX/UI

Tools

GitHub

Gitpod

Frontend tooling

Job description

Do you have experience building and shipping exceptional UX at an early-stage startup or customer-facing product?

Are you excited by real ownership, product influence, and shaping the frontend experience of a genuinely category-defining AI product?

Experience: 5-10 years (startup or customer-facing product background are a bonus)

I’m excited to be continuing our partnership with a pre‑seed AI startup building agentic AI systems that radically improve how knowledge workers think, decide, and get work done. This is not another chatbot. This is an AI‑native product being built from first principles by engineers from elite technical environments (e.g. Palantir, Citadel).

As the company evolves into a more product‑led, consumer‑style experience, they’re now looking to hire their first dedicated Frontend Engineer, someone who can own and shape the entire user experience from the ground up.

This is a true founding‑level opportunity as the 3rd engineering hire.

You’ll work directly on:

• Building high-performance, real‑time AI‑native interfaces
• Crafting intuitive UX for complex autonomous workflows
• Developing beautiful, responsive frontend systems in TypeScript & React
• Creating product experiences users genuinely love using
• Influencing product direction, interaction design, and frontend architecture

They’re particularly interested in engineers who have:

• Worked on developer tools, web‑based IDEs, or highly interactive products (e.g. Gitpod, GitHub, Cursor‑style environments)
• Built customer‑facing or prosumer applications
• Strong product intuition and a sharp eye for UX/UI
• Experience operating in fast‑moving startup environments
• A desire to own frontend strategy, not just implement tickets
• TypeScript
• React
• AI‑native workflows & tooling throughout engineering
• Some backend experience for optionality
• Experience with PLG or consumer‑style products
• Design sensibility and ability to bridge engineering + product experience

What they’re looking for:

• Strong commercial & product mindset – you care deeply about user experience and outcomes
• Comfortable in ambiguity and zero‑to‑one environments
• Proven ability to ship quickly and iterate with users
• High ownership mentality and startup pace
• AI‑native way of working (LLMs are tools, not toys)
• Real founding‑level ownership and influence
• Small, elite team that ships fast
• Well‑funded with long runway
• Opportunity to define the frontend experience of a next‑generation AI product
• Not another boring B2B SaaS platform... this is something people will genuinely want to use