Lead Software Engineer | Defence AI Start-Up | London

Lead Software Engineer | Defence AI Start-Up | London

Lead Software Engineer required to join a rapidly growing London-based defence AI start-up building next-generation autonomous and AI-driven systems supporting critical national security missions.

Founded by experienced operators and technologists, and backed by leading investors, the company is entering an exciting growth phase. This is a hands‑on technical leadership opportunity to shape the architecture, mentor engineers, and build highly scalable software powering cutting‑edge AI and autonomous systems.

You are:

• A Software Engineer with 7+ years of professional experience, strong backend engineering expertise in Python, Java, C++, Rust, or Go, and experience building modern frontends with TypeScript
• A hands‑on technical leader who enjoys mentoring engineers and driving engineering best practices
• Language agnostic, with excellent software engineering fundamentals
• Comfortable working in fast‑paced, high‑growth start‑up environments
• Interested in AI, autonomy, defence, or mission‑critical technologies
• Experience within defence, aerospace, robotics, autonomy, or security
• Previous experience in an early‑stage or venture‑backed start‑up
• Experience building mission‑critical or safety‑critical systems
• Build technology that delivers real‑world impact within defence and national security
• Join a well‑backed, high‑growth AI start‑up with experienced founders
• Influence technical direction while remaining deeply hands‑on
• Work on advanced AI, autonomy, and distributed systems at the cutting edge
• Join a small, high‑calibre engineering team solving genuinely complex challenges

If you’re a hands‑on software engineer looking to take technical ownership without moving away from engineering, I’d love to hear from you.

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