> Markdown version of [/jobs/ext/2797531-founding-backend-engineer](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/jobs/ext/2797531-founding-backend-engineer). Every page supports `.md` or `Accept: text/markdown`. Links point to the HTML versions so they work for humans too. Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md).

---

# Founding Backend Engineer

- **Company:** SOLR AI
- **Location:** Greater London, UK
- **Salary:** £85,000.0 - £95,000.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Automation of Tests, Databases, Continuous Integration, Information Engineering, DevOps, Fault Tolerance, PostgreSQL, TypeScript, Data Logging, Cloud Platform System, Backend, Front End Software Development
- **Published:** September 8, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.collegerecruiter.com/job/2845699016-founding-backend-engineer

## About the Role

Nice to have: geospatial or GIS work; experience in compliance-conscious environments (GDPR-heavy, fintech, healthtech); DevOps exposure; enough frontend competence to extend a client-facing interface; early-stage startup background.

## Description

You'll work directly with Anna, our co-founder and CTO, as our first founding engineer. The near-term job is turning a platform that works into a platform we can put contracts and SLAs behind: reliable, observable, secure by default, and able to onboard paying enterprise clients without every integration being a fire drill. Most of the day-to-day is backend and data engineering, and the scope is founding-level: you'll shape the architecture with Anna, own whole systems end to end, and touch whatever the platform needs., Daily, fluent use of AI coding and agent tools is non-negotiable in this role, and the work trial will assess how you work with them. We want the opposite: you use these tools to move fast, and you can explain, defend and rebuild any part of the system without them. If you can't say why a piece of code exists, it doesn't ship., * Harden the core pipeline against failure: timeouts, retries and graceful degradation across external data dependencies

 * Build out CI/CD, structured logging and alerting so we know about failures before clients do
 * Design and ship multi-tenant API authentication for design partners and enterprise clients
 * Own data engineering across the pipeline: ingestion, schema design and geospatial queries over property, building and imagery data
 * Build the automated testing and ground-truth benchmarking that lets us stand behind our accuracy claims
 * Work directly with our design partners and enterprise clients during onboarding and integration, and turn what you hear into what we build next
 * Shape architecture decisions directly with Anna as we onboard clients and scale, building to the standard that enterprise security and data-protection reviews expect, by default rather than retrofit, Python backend, Typescript, a Postgres-family database with geospatial support, cloud-native infrastructure on GCP, and a modern frontend framework for the client-facing interface. We'll go deep on the architecture with you during the process.


## Related Videos

- [From DevOps to Scaled DevOps: How We’re Rebuilding Continuous Delivery as a Platform](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100018-from-devops-to-scaled-devops-how-we-re-rebuilding-continuous-delivery-as-a-platform)
- [Developing the Backend with Stefan Lingler, CTO at Shpock](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100360-developing-the-backend-with-stefan-lingler-cto-at-shpock)
- [Kubernetes and Microservices with Multi-Model Databases](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/382-kubernetes-and-microservices-with-multi-model-databases)
- [Add Location-based Searching to Site with ElasticSearch](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/77-add-location-based-searching-to-site-with-elasticsearch)
- [Meet Your New BFF: Backend to Frontend without the Duct Tape](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/682-meet-your-new-bff-backend-to-frontend-without-the-duct-tape)
- [DevOps Maturity Check – a way to balance autonomy and alignment](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/58-devops-maturity-check-a-way-to-balance-autonomy-and-alignment)

## Related Articles

- [Dev Digest 120 - Apple and peers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/455-dev-digest-120-apple-and-peers)
- [Dev Digest 121 - AI goes offline](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/456-dev-digest-121-ai-goes-offline)
- [Software Engineer Salary London](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/252-software-engineer-salary-london)
- [Dev Digest 137 - AI'm not sure about this](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/485-dev-digest-137-ai-m-not-sure-about-this)
- [Navigating the AI Shift](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/629-navigating-the-ai-shift)
- [Fully Remote Software Engineer Jobs](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/447-fully-remote-software-engineer-jobs)