Lead AI Engineer – Architect & Scale Agentic Systems

Understanding Recruitment; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Understanding Recruitment is partnering with a fast-growing AI startup in London seeking a Lead Software Engineer. You will own technical direction, architect scalable backend systems, and lead a small team.

You will work on agentic AI workflows and real-time AI infrastructure while delivering robust, scalable solutions. The role demands 5-8+ years of hands-on software engineering, a strong CS/engineering/math background, and deep expertise in Node.js, NestJS, REST APIs, and microservices.

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or Mathematics from a strong university.
• 5-8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience.
• Expertise in Node.js and NestJS.
• Strong experience building RESTful APIs and microservices.

Responsibilities

• Architect scalable backend systems and APIs end-to-end.
• Design microservice and event-driven architectures for real-time AI workflows.
• Build infrastructure powering AI agents at scale.
• Lead a small team of engineers and set engineering standards.

Skills

Node.js

NestJS

REST APIs

Microservices

Agentic AI

Leadership

TypeScript

Education

Computer Science degree

Engineering degree

Mathematics degree

Tools

Claude Code

Google Cloud

MongoDB

Qdrant

React

Next.js

TypeScript

Job description

Understanding Recruitment is partnering with a fast-growing AI startup in London seeking a Lead Software Engineer. You will own technical direction, architect scalable backend systems, and lead a small team.

You will work on agentic AI workflows and real-time AI infrastructure while delivering robust, scalable solutions. The role demands 5-8+ years of hands-on software engineering, a strong CS/engineering/math background, and deep expertise in Node.js, NestJS, REST APIs, and microservices.