Founding Engineer at Spinal - Post-seed AI infrastructure startup

Join Spinal as a Founding Engineer to build the system of record for AI cost intelligence. You will design the core billing engine and data pipelines that process millions of real-time events for enterprises. This is a true 0-to-1 role where you will own the technical architecture alongside the CTO to solve AI's biggest spend visibility problem.

• Ship a production-grade billing engine and scalable data infrastructure handling millions of real-time events within your first 90 days.
• Architect and maintain a high-performance backend stack using Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and ClickHouse deployed on GCP.
• Define the engineering culture and practices, including API design and distributed systems strategy, that will serve as the foundation for all future hires.

• Proven experience building products from 0-1, ideally having previously co-founded a startup or served as an early-stage lead engineer.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python and FastAPI with a strong background in academic engineering and complex backend systems like ClickHouse.
• A systems-thinker who is comfortable with the ambiguity of early-stage growth and resides in London to collaborate in-person 4 days a week.

• Lead the architectural design of a foundational infrastructure layer for the rapidly growing AI economy, moving from initial concept to enterprise-scale production.
• Join a high-velocity, post-seed startup with strong runway, early enterprise traction, and a founding team with deep expertise in infrastructure and AI systems.
• Receive meaningful equity (0.5-1.5%) and a clear path to a salary increase to £120k following the next funding round anticipated within 12 months.