Founding Engineer | Head of Engineering

Dex; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Dex partners with a regulated fintech startup to recruit a founding engineer who will own the entire technical stack from day one, architecting, building, and securing the core platform. This is a hands-on building role, not a management position, with the founder and early team setting the engineering culture.

You will translate ambitious regulatory requirements into robust, scalable financial systems, drive productization from concept to production, and help scale the team while ensuring

Qualifications

• 5-12 years of engineering experience, with deep expertise in backend systems, infrastructure, and production architecture.
• Proven track record building complex, highly regulated financial infrastructure (e.g., core banking, ledger systems, payments).
• Experience as a founding engineer, early hire, or senior engineer scaling a high-growth fintech or infrastructure company.
• Expertise in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, data integrity, reliability, and security.
• London-based or willing to relocate, and committed to in-person collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and secure the entire core banking platform from first principles.
• Own all technical decisions: infrastructure, backend systems, data integrity, and product engineering.
• Translate complex regulatory requirements into scalable, resilient, and compliant financial systems.
• Drive the product from initial concept through to production, ensuring security and reliability.
• Define the engineering culture and recruit the foundational engineering team.

Skills

Backend systems

Distributed systems

Cloud infrastructure

Data integrity

Production architecture

Security

Founding engineer

Regulated financial infra

London-based/relocation

Job description

This role is with one of Dex's trusted partner companies. We work closely with their teams to truly understand their culture, goals, and what they're looking for, so we can match you with the right opportunity and give you context about the role before you commit to a process.

Dex is an AI recruiter agent that helps you run your job search. Tell Dex your stack, seniority, and what you want to build. We will manage your applications and surface other opportunities that are a fit.

The role

This team is building a regulated financial institution from first principles. Their mission: bank and finance the companies driving Europe's defence, security, and resilience buildout. A trillion-euro market is opening up as strategic autonomy becomes a priority, and traditional banks aren't built for the startups at its core. They are backed by leading investors.

As the founding engineer, you'll own the entire technical stack from day one. This means architecting, building, and securing the core platform, taking the initial product from concept to production. This is a hands-on building role, not a management position. You'll set the engineering culture and help scale the team, working directly with the founder to translate ambitious ideas into robust, regulated systems.

The work

• Architect, build, and secure the entire core banking platform from first principles.
• Own all technical decisions: infrastructure, backend systems, data integrity, and product engineering.
• Translate complex regulatory requirements into scalable, resilient, and compliant financial systems.
• Drive the product from initial concept through to production, ensuring security and reliability.
• Define the engineering culture and recruit the foundational engineering team.

What You Bring

• 5-12 years of engineering experience, with deep expertise in backend systems, infrastructure, and production architecture.
• Proven track record building complex, highly regulated financial infrastructure (e.g., core banking, ledger systems, payments).
• Experience as a founding engineer, early hire, or senior engineer scaling a high-growth fintech or infrastructure company.
• Expertise in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, data integrity, reliability, and security.
• London-based or willing to relocate, and committed to in-person collaboration.

Why apply through Dex

Founding roles at stealth companies are rarely advertised publicly. Dex gives you direct access to opportunities like this, skipping the cold application process. Get a full brief on the company and role before you commit, and explore other matched roles without the usual job search friction.

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