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
• Comfortable designing and delivering complex, scalable distributed systems
• 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

Bonus points:

• 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

Why join:

• 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.

Lead Software Engineer \| Defence AI Start-Up \| London