You will join a 5-person founding team led by former Cleo and Cash App executives to build a breakout consumer AI shopping agent. Architecting for the "AI era," you will move the product from beta to launch, creating private social networks and intelligent agents that reinvent how households make high-stakes purchases.
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Founding Backend Engineer at Highlo
Join a world-class founding team of former Cash App and Cleo executives at this $4M pre-seed AI startup in London. Backed by the former CTO of Stripe and top-tier VCs, this role offers a rare chance to architect the first breakout consumer shopping agent from the ground up. If you have 8+ years of backend experience and a hunger for 0-1 product building, you can claim up to 1% equity and shape the future of how the world shops.
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This role is no longer actively hiring, but Jack can still help you discover similar open roles that fit.
Location
London, United Kingdom
Compensation
Up to £130k + Equity
Company
Highlo
Role overview
Highlo is creating the future of how we go shopping: your own AI shopping agent, who takes you shopping through stores curated just for you, and brings in the real people and opinions you care about. Our mission is to help everyone find the things that truly help them live the lives they want, and spend their money well.
What you will do
- Architect and scale cloud-native backend systems using .NET 8, Azure, and Redis to support real-time social shopping experiences.
- Integrate cutting-edge AI services and LLM APIs to build agents that curate personalized stores and navigate complex product data.
- Lead technical strategy and end-to-end delivery of 0-1 features, moving from customer insights to production-ready experiments daily.
Who this is a fit for
- 8+ years of experience building scalable backend services in OO languages like C#, Java, or Go with a mastery of system architecture.
- Proven track record as a 0-1 builder who has shipped consumer-facing products from scratch and values automated testing and TDD.
- Hands-on experience with generative AI tooling and a passion for using LLMs to create novel, joyful user interactions.
Why this role is remarkable
- Work directly with founders who grew startups to $500M valuations and #1 on the App Store, backed by top VCs who supported Revolut and Synthesia.
- Significant ownership at ground zero with Index-benchmarked founding equity (up to ~1%) in a high-conviction, AI-first consumer play.
- Rare opportunity to define a new product category using generative AI to solve decision fatigue and tab-overload in a multi-billion dollar market.
How Jack & Jill work together
I get to know what you’re great at, then find roles you’d never find yourself.Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.
I recruit from Jack’s network and make the intro when I spot a great match.And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.
Jack gets to know what you're great at and what you want next, then searches 15 million jobs daily and helps you discover roles at companies like this.
Meet Jack
What happens next?
Jack’s an AI agent for job searching and career coaching. He works for you.
Jill is the AI recruiter working for the company. She recruits from Jack’s network.
If your profile’s a match and Highlo wants to meet, Jill will make the intro. In the meantime, Jack will send you excellent alternatives.