Senior Software Engineer - Backend

Zettafleet; Remote; GBP 81,000 - 108,000; Full time

Job summary

A cutting-edge AI lab seeks a skilled software engineer focused on backend development. The role involves designing and developing scalable backend systems while collaborating with a dynamic founding team. Desired skills include extensive experience in cloud-native technologies and a strong sense of ownership. The position offers a competitive salary, equity, and a comprehensive benefits package. Successful candidates will thrive in an early-stage startup environment and engage in solving complex challenges in AI.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Equity

28 days plus public holidays

Professional growth opportunities

Qualifications

• 5+ years of industry experience building reliable backend systems.
• Experience deploying in cloud platforms like AWS, GCP or Azure.
• Solid understanding of containerisation technologies like Docker.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop scalable, fault tolerant backend systems.
• Lead projects from inception to launch with high ownership.
• Mentor colleagues and help hire future team members.

Skills

Backend development

Cloud-native technologies

Leadership

Problem solving

Collaboration and communication

Tools

AWS

Terraform

C# (.NET 9)

Postgres

SNS/SQS

Redis

Job description

Team: Backend

Location: UK Remote

Employment Type: Full-time and Permanent

Remuneration (UK – Remote): £81–108k Base Salary + Discretionary Bonus + Equity

We are a stealth-mode AI laboratory researching and developing Machine Learning models.

The founding team consists of Cambridge graduates and former engineers at Google, Meta, Bloomberg, Microsoft and Amazon. We are backed by prominent investors from the US and the UK, including institutional VC funds and C-level executives of global technology companies.

The role involves the design and development of backend services and infrastructure for Machine Learning workloads. You will be working closely with the Machine Learning team; however, you are not required or expected to have background in Machine Learning. This is an applied role, and we are looking to hire a software engineer with experience in cloud computing and distributed systems.

In this role, you will:

• Design and develop highly-scalable, fault tolerant and event driven systems that directly power our core products.
• Lead projects from inception to launch and beyond, having a high degree of autonomy and ownership over your work.
• Work closely with the founding team and contribute towards best practices, standards, and culture of the company.
• Mentor colleagues and lead by example, raising the bar for the whole company.
• Help hire future colleagues and shape the team you want to work with.

Our tech stack:

• We use and leverage AWS as much as possible and manage it with Terraform.
• Services are written in C# (.NET 9) and deployed to ECS or Lambda via GitHub Actions.
• We use Postgres, SNS/SQS and Redis.
• We have good end-to-end test coverage and are confident in our deployments.

What we are looking for:

• Back-end development: 5+ years of industry experience building reliable and scalable back-end systems with an object-oriented language.
• Cloud-native technologies: Experience in architecting and deploying in cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP or Azure), an understanding of containerisation (e.g., Docker), infrastructure-as-code software (e.g., Terraform), and observability platforms (e.g., Datadog or Grafana).
• Strong ownership mindset: You naturally take responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks, and care deeply about the quality of what you ship.
• Product-oriented thinking: You think beyond implementation details, proactively suggesting improvements that balance customer value with business impact.
• Leadership: A track record of leading complex projects and influencing technical direction.
• Problem solving: Strong analytical problem-solving skills and attention to detail. You have the ability to break down complex projects into actionable tasks.
• Collaboration and communication: Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

We would like to acknowledge that almost no candidate checks every box – and that is perfectly fine. If you are passionate about solving complex challenges and open to learning new technologies, we would love to hear from you.

How we work:

• We are a small, early-stage team with big ambitions. We move quickly, care deeply about what we build, and take pride in doing things well.
• This is a high-ownership environment where people who are proactive, curious, and motivated by impact tend to thrive.

Nice to have:

• Machine Learning: Experience in generative models, LLMs, multi-modal models and Deep Learning more generally.
• Open-source: Contributions to and experience in open-source projects.
• Startup experience: Experience in an early-stage startup environment.

Why join us?

• Work in an environment conducting cutting-edge research in AI.
• Competitive salary, equity and benefits package.
• 28 days + public holidays allowance.
• Opportunities for professional growth and progression with your career.
• Work on challenging engineering problems that have a real impact on the industry.
• Work with high-profile customers and technology partners.