Lead Platform Engineer - AI-Driven Backend & Microservices

La Fosse; Greater London; On-site; GBP 140,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

La Fosse is partnering with an AI-driven startup in London, seeking a Lead Software Engineer focused on backend and AI initiatives. You will own high-impact features and help shape the engineering strategy in a fast-paced environment.

The role emphasizes building scalable Node.js services, incorporating AI and automation, and leading a small team. Strong experience in distributed systems and cloud-native development is required.

Qualifications

• Strong commercial experience with Node.js, TypeScript, NestJS, REST APIs and distributed systems.
• Experience building products in startups, scale-ups or high-growth technology businesses.
• Hands-on experience with Python and an interest in Generative AI, LLMs, AI Agents, Agentic Workflows, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Prompt Engineering and AI Automation.
• Experience integrating with models such as OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Gemini or open-source LLMs.
• Strong understanding of system design, microservices, event-driven architecture and cloud-native development.
• Experience working with PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Vector Databases (Qdrant, Pinecone, Weaviate or similar).
• Comfortable working in ambiguous environments where priorities evolve quickly.
• Product-minded engineer who wants to own outcomes, not just tickets.

Responsibilities

• Building and scaling backend services using Node.js and TypeScript.
• Developing AI-powered features, agentic workflows, and automation tools.
• Working closely with engineering leadership on technical strategy and architecture.
• Using Python to support AI, data, and machine learning initiatives.
• Taking products from idea through to production in a high-ownership environment.
• Helping shape engineering best practices in an AI-first business.
• Managing a small engineering team.

Skills

Node.js

TypeScript

NestJS

REST APIs

Distributed systems

Job description

La Fosse is partnering with an AI-driven startup in London, seeking a Lead Software Engineer focused on backend and AI initiatives. You will own high-impact features and help shape the engineering strategy in a fast-paced environment.

The role emphasizes building scalable Node.js services, incorporating AI and automation, and leading a small team. Strong experience in distributed systems and cloud-native development is required.