Software Engineering Manager

Duku AI; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Duku AI in London is seeking a hands-on leader to own engineering execution end-to-end, taking ideas from zero to production while strengthening our autonomous QA platform. You will shape the technical DNA of the company, ship daily deployments, and collaborate with founders on strategic roadmaps that define what we build and how we learn from it.

As a key member of the leadership team, you’ll train AI agents, design tests, and own the stack from Python to cloud infrastructure, turning

Qualifications

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

Responsibilities

• Own engineering execution end-to-end.
• Take ideas from zero to production.
• Help define the technical DNA of the company.
• Ship daily deployments; we deploy daily, not monthly.
• Talk to users; shape the roadmap with founders.
• Train AI agents; design LLM-powered testers.

Skills

Relentless drive

Startup experience

AI/LLMs fluency

Product obsession

Tools

LangChain

Vector stores

Prompt engineering

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’ll 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.