Head of Software Engineering

Duku AI; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A cutting-edge AI company in Greater London is seeking a hands-on leader to drive engineering execution and develop AI-powered testing solutions. This role is ideal for someone with a relentless drive and a strong background in AI and LLMs. You'll collaborate closely with users and define the technical DNA of the company while bringing groundbreaking features to production. If you're ready to join a venture-backed startup and make a significant impact on software quality, this is the opportunity for you.

Qualifications

• You execute quickly and adapt faster.
• Experience in shipping products without a safety net.
• Proficient in prompt engineering and AI features.

Responsibilities

• Own engineering execution from start to finish.
• Converse with users to shape the product roadmap.
• Train AI agents to explore and learn in real-time.

Skills

Relentless drive

Fluency with AI/LLMs

Product obsession

Startup experience

Tools

Python

TypeScript

Cloud infrastructure

LangChain

Job description

QA slows the world down. Flaky tests kill trust, stall releases, and bleed engineering velocity.

Duku AI is ending that era.

We’re building autonomous agents that think like engineers : they run every critical user journey, catch failures before users do, and self-heal as the codebase evolves. Real AI teammates, not test scripts that break on impact.

We’re venture-backed and led by operators who’ve scaled Meta’s testing infrastructure, launched Uber’s global playbooks, and grew Deliveroo from zero to hypergrowth. We know what elite execution looks like and we’re hunting for one more builder to help us rewrite the rules of software quality.

What You Do

• You will own engineering execution end-to-end.
• You will take ideas from zero to production.
• You will help define the technical DNA of the company.Ship fast, learn faster : We deploy daily, not monthly
• Talk to users, shape the roadmap : Sit in the trenches with founders on calls that define what we build
• Train AI agents: Design LLM-powered testers that explore, learn, and adapt in real time
• Own the stack :Python, TypeScript, cloud infra, from commit to production
• Turn prototypes into production : Run real experiments on models, embeddings, and retrieval pipelines

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives without guardrails.

What We’re Looking For

• Relentless drive: You execute fast, adapt faster
• Startup scar tissue : You’ve shipped product with no safety net
• Fluency with AI/LLMs : LangChain, vector stores, prompt engineering
• Product obsession : You care more about outcomes than outputs

Ideal Background

There’s no perfect pedigree. We hire for mindset, not credentials. That said, you might have:

• Shipped AI features in prod
• Built something from 0 to 1
• Thrived in chaos with high ownership

Why This Matters

Software is accelerating. QA hasn’t kept up. Autonomous testing is inevitable, and we’re building it.

Five years from now, every high-velocity team will rely on AI agents like ours to ship faster, safer, and smarter.

Join now, and help make that future real, before someone else does.