VP of Engineering (up to £200k)

Dex; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Dex is developing a Surgical Intelligence Platform deployed in hospitals, enabling real-time 3D guidance from medical imaging. You will be the technical successor to the founder, shaping integration standards across AI, XR, hardware, and QA, while expanding the team and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Lead design across pillars, plug into OEM stacks, and drive SDK development for safety-critical medical applications in a fast-paced, FDA/HIPAA-conscious environment.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience integrating software with real surgical or medical-grade hardware.
• Comfort working directly with edge compute and GPUs (NVIDIA Jetson/AGX-class).
• Led and scaled an engineering team spanning software, AI/ML, and regulatory functions.
• Ability to operate across AI, XR, hardware, and software, setting integration standards.
• Fluency with regulated, safety-critical product development (FDA submissions, HIPAA, ISO 13485).

Responsibilities

• Drive an immediate OEM integration, shipping an SDK that plugs into a major scope manufacturer's stack.
• Balance immediate commercial priorities with longer-term work like foundation models and sub-mm navigation.
• Scale the engineering team from roughly six people to 10–12 by year-end.
• Architect across AI, XR, hardware, and software, defining integration standards and API contracts between pillars.
• Navigate the regulatory path (FDA Class I/II, HIPAA, ISO 13485, IEC 62304) to keep product development moving.

Skills

Software-Hardware integration

Edge compute

AI/ML leadership

XR/AR

Regulatory experience

Tools

NVIDIA Jetson

Job description

This role is with one of Dex's trusted partner companies. We work closely with their teams to truly understand their culture, goals, and what they're looking for, so we can match you with the right opportunity and give you context about the role before you commit to a process.

The role

This company is building a Surgical Intelligence Platform already deployed in hospitals, including supporting the world's first XR-assisted conjoined twin separation. They turn medical imaging into real-time 3D guidance surgeons can act on, with technology that has already supported groundbreaking procedures.

The founder, a neurosurgeon who built the original stack solo, is stepping back from technical work entirely. You'll be his technical successor: the system architect across AI & Perception, Platform Software, Hardware, and QA. This isn't a role for someone who wants to stay deep in one tech stack; it's about setting integration standards and API contracts across complex, safety-critical pillars.

The work

• Drive an immediate OEM integration, shipping an SDK that plugs into a major scope manufacturer's stack to unlock a term sheet.
• Balance immediate commercial priorities against longer-term work like foundation models and sub-mm navigation.
• Scale the engineering team from roughly six people to 10–12 by year-end.
• Architect across AI, XR, hardware, and software, defining integration standards and API contracts between pillars.
• Navigate the regulatory path (FDA Class I/II, HIPAA, ISO 13485, IEC 62304) to keep product development moving.

What You Bring

• Hands-on experience integrating software with real surgical or medical-grade hardware (e.g., Olympus- or Medtronic-style devices). Theoretical systems-design knowledge is not enough.
• Comfort working directly with edge compute and GPUs (NVIDIA Jetson/AGX-class), optimizing real-time pipelines for latency.
• Led and scaled an engineering team of 10+ people spanning software, AI/ML, and ideally a regulatory function.
• Ability to operate across engineering pillars (AI, XR, hardware, software), setting integration standards rather than staying deep in a single lane.
• Working fluency with regulated, safety-critical product development (FDA submissions, HIPAA, ISO 13485).