Founding Engineer

Founding Engineer (Mobile / AI Product)

Future Head of Engineering

Hybrid – Manchester

 

The Opportunity

We’re working with an early-stage, mission-led business in the financial wellbeing space, looking to hire a Founding Engineer to play a pivotal role in shaping both the product and the technical direction of the company.

This is a high-impact, hands-on role with a clear pathway into Head of Engineering, offering the opportunity to work directly with the founders to build and evolve an AI-native product from the ground up.

If you’re at a point in your career where you want more ownership, influence, and long-term upside, this is a rare opportunity to step into a true founding-level position.

About the Product

The platform focuses on improving how people think, act and feel about money, combining:

• Open banking integrations
• Behavioural change principles
• Gamified, Duolingo-style learning experiences
• Financial wellbeing and education

The next phase of growth is centred around embedding AI at the core of the product experience, not as an add-on, but as a fundamental layer driving personalisation, engagement, and insight.

The Role

You will take ownership of the core product experience, with an immediate focus on the mobile application, while contributing to the broader technical architecture and long-term platform strategy.

This is not a traditional “hands-off” leadership role — you will remain deeply hands-on, operating as a builder, architect, and strategic partner to the founders.

What You’ll Be Doing

Product Engineering

• Lead development of the mobile application
• Translate product vision into high-quality, scalable code
• Own delivery end-to-end (architecture, build, testing, deployment)
• Work closely with product and design to deliver a best-in-class user experience

AI-Driven Product Development

• Embed AI meaningfully into the product experience

Explore use cases across:

• Personalisation
• Behavioural insights
• User engagement
• Leverage modern AI tooling to accelerate development and improve output

Technical Strategy

• Help define and evolve system architecture

Make key decisions across:

• Mobile stack
• Backend integrations
• Data and AI infrastructure
• Balance speed vs scalability in an early-stage environment

Commercial & Product Input

• Contribute to product direction and prioritisation

Work closely with founders on:

• Product-market fit
• Feature roadmap
• Partner integrations (e.g. HR platforms, B2B2C distribution)

Future Leadership

• Progress into Head of Engineering (9–18 months)
• Build and scale the engineering function
• Define engineering culture, standards, and processes
• Mentor and develop future hires

About You

You’re likely a strong Senior or Lead Engineer who is ready to step into a broader role with more ownership and impact.

You want to build — not just features, but product, systems, and ultimately a team.

Core Experience

• Strong background in software engineering, with experience building production applications
• Experience developing mobile applications (React Native or similar)
• Comfortable working across APIs, backend systems, and cloud environments
• Experience operating in startup, scale-up, or high-ownership environments

AI & Modern Engineering

• Already using AI tools to improve development workflows
• Strong interest in building AI-enabled product features
• Curious about how LLMs, agents, and data can enhance user experience

Mindset & Approach

• Product-focused: you care about user outcomes, not just implementation
• Commercially aware: you understand how engineering decisions impact business outcomes
• Comfortable with ambiguity and moving quickly
• Ownership-driven: you take responsibility and follow things through

Leadership Potential

• Interested in stepping into a leadership role over time
• Strong communicator across technical and non-technical audiences
• Motivated by the opportunity to build and lead a team

Why This Role

• Founding-level opportunity with real ownership
• Direct access to founders and strategic decision-making
• Opportunity to build an AI-native product from the ground up
• Clear pathway to Head of Engineering
• Mission-led business tackling financial wellbeing and stress
• Meaningful long-term upside through equity

Next Steps

If this sounds of interest, we’d welcome an initial conversation to talk through:

The product vision and roadmap
The technical challenges and opportunities
Your experience and what you’re looking for next

Book a time here:
https://calendly.com/yourprimerecruitment/introduction