Head of Software Engineering

Head of Engineering | £120K + 0.75% Equity | Remote | Route to CTO

Looking for a remote-first route into a CTO role in the AI startup world?

You've already proved you can lead engineers. Now you want to own the technology function, scale a team, work with the board and customers, and step into the CTO seat.

The company

Building the operational intelligence layer for UK transport, fusing fragmented data from cameras, sensors and roadside infrastructure to help authorities plan networks, cutting congestion and monitor highways in real time.

Founded by an Imperial and Cambridge-trained team, bootstrapped to £1M ARR before raising £3M seed round last month. Already deployed with National Highways, Connect Plus and leading engineering consultancies - Series A and £5M ARR is the next goal.

The Head of Engineering role

You'll join as Head of Engineering, inherit a high-performing team of 7, and become the most senior technical leader in the business, reporting to the CEO.

Over 12-18 months, the team scales towards ~18 engineers, with a clear, earned path to CTO as you demonstrate ownership and the business hits its growth targets.

What you'll achieve in the first 12 months

Month 3: Understand the technology, team and risks. Bring clarity to engineering priorities.

Month 6: Delivery is predictable, monitoring is proactive and AI tooling is helping the team ship faster.

Month 12: You're the technical authority across the business, increasingly representing technology with customers and the Board.

What they're looking for

• 10+ years in software engineering, 2-3+ in leadership
• Led engineering through genuine B2B growth
• Ideally scaled teams to 14-18+ more than once
• Startup or scale-up experience
• Strong technical and architectural fundamentals
• Heavy, genuine use of AI coding tools and agents in your daily workflow

Their stack includes Python, FastAPI, React, TypeScript, AWS, Snowflake, Dagster and dbt.

Most importantly, you're ambitious. You genuinely want the CTO job and everything that comes with it longterm: owning technical direction, scaling engineering and becoming a senior voice with customers and the board.

Package

Remote-first UK (London or Bristol offices available for occasional meetups)