Founding Engineer ? Future Head of Engineering

Salary: £80,000 - £110,000 + Equity

Location: Manchester | Flexible Working

Type: Permanent

We're working with a fast-growing, venture-backed technology business that has gained strong early traction and is now looking for a Founding Engineer to help shape its next stage of growth.

This is a rare opportunity to join at an early stage, taking ownership of the core mobile product while working closely with the founders to define the technical vision. The successful candidate will have a clear pathway to progress into Head of Engineering within 9-18 months.

This role is ideal for someone who wants more than just a coding position and is excited by the opportunity to build, influence strategy, and lead a future engineering team.

You'll take ownership of the company's mobile application, leading development from architecture through to deployment while helping shape the wider technology strategy.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading development of a production-grade mobile application
• Delivering features end-to-end, from design through to deployment
• Driving product performance, scalability, security, and user experience
• Leveraging AI tools to improve engineering productivity
• Contributing to AI-powered product features and innovation
• Working closely with founders on product and technical decisions
• Helping define the future engineering roadmap and team structure

You'll be a highly capable engineer with a strong ownership mentality and ambitions to move into leadership.

• 5+ years' software engineering experience
• Strong mobile development background
• Proven experience building and shipping mobile applications
• Strong React Native experience
• Experience with APIs, backend integrations, and cloud platforms
• Familiarity with AI tools and modern development workflows
• Excellent communication skills

• Startup or scale-up experience
• Exposure to AI-powered products or machine learning
• Previous leadership, mentoring, or technical ownership responsibilities

• £80,000 - £110,000 salary
• Equity options
• Remote-first and flexible working
• Personal development budget
• Access to the latest AI tooling
• Direct exposure to founders and strategic decision-making
• Clear progression to Head of Engineering

This is an opportunity to join a business at a pivotal stage, take ownership of a core product, influence technical direction, and build an engineering function from the ground up.

If you're a hands-on engineer looking for a genuine path into technical leadership, we'd love to hear from you.