Software Engineer - UK

<h3><strong>Senior Software Engineer </strong></h3><h4><strong>Description</strong></h4><p>Location: Remote/Hybrid UK-based)</p><p>Team: Engineering</p><p>Reports to: VP of Engineering</p><h4>About SourceWhale</h4><p>Financial Timesʼ fastest-growing software company in Europe 2025,</p><p>SourceWhale is a group of really smart people solving productivity problems for</p><p></p><p>people-intensive industries using AI and automation.</p><p>Founded in 2020, we are currently focused on automating the manual, tedious</p><p>parts of sales and recruitment activities, empowering companies and their</p><p>employees to get more done. The platform consolidates every stage of the</p><p>industry's work-flows into one sleek, integrated tool. Building alongside</p><p>cutting-edge LLMs, SourceWhale is poised to be the company that puts the AI</p><p>'agent' in recruitment agencies.</p><p></p><p>Voted one of The Sunday Timesʼ Best Places to Work 2025, we pursue</p><p>innovation, champion employee wellbeing and offer fast-paced growth in a</p><p>supportive transatlantic culture. Our engineering team is a group of thoughtful,</p><p>collaborative professionals who value quality, continuous improvement, and</p><p>meaningful product outcomes over outputs.</p><p></p><p>As we enter our next stage of growth, weʼre on the lookout for a Senior</p><p>Software Engineer who wants to make an impact on a platform used all day,</p><p>every working day, by thousands of people.</p><p></p><h4><strong>The Role</strong></h4><p>This is a senior role focused on technical leadership, stream-level delivery,</p><p>and engineering excellence.</p><p>Youʼll own complex technical work end-to-end, guide architectural and implementation decisions, mentor engineers across the stream, and help shape how we build software at SourceWhale. While this role remains hands-on, impact is measured not only by the code you write, but by how effectively you improve the quality, reliability, and effectiveness of the wider team.</p><p>Youʼll work closely with Product Managers, QA Engineers, Designers, and Software Engineers to deliver scalable, high-quality solutions across a platform</p><p>that includes:</p><p>Python backend services</p><p>Svelte/jQuery frontend applications</p><p>AWS cloud infrastructure</p><p>CRM integrations</p><p>Chrome and email extensions</p><p>OpenAI-powered workflows and automation</p><p>This role is ideal for someone who enjoys solving technically complex problems</p><p>while helping others grow and improving how teams operate.</p><p></p><h4>What Youʼll Do</h4><p>Lead complex technical delivery</p><p>Own the delivery of complex features and systems end-to-end.</p><p>Break ambiguous product problems into scalable technical solutions.</p><p>Balance speed, maintainability, reliability, and customer value in decision-</p><p>making.</p><p>Guide implementation decisions and technical trade-offs across the stream.</p><p>Drive technical excellence</p><p>Write maintainable, predictable, scalable code.</p><p>Perform thoughtful technical reviews that improve both code quality and</p><p>engineer capability.</p><p>Shape patterns, standards, and approaches that improve consistency</p><p>across the stream</p><p>Identify and resolve systemic technical issues, not just isolated bugs.</p><p>Influence architecture & design</p><p>Design efficient, scalable systems with long-term maintainability in mind.</p><p>Evaluate architectural trade-offs across integrations, APIs, infrastructure,</p><p>and product workflows.</p><p>Anticipate scaling challenges and operational risks early.</p><p>Contribute to broader engineering discussions through technical leadership</p><p>and peer influence.</p><p>Mentor & elevate engineers</p><p>Coach junior engineers on implementation, debugging, design patterns, and</p><p>engineering practices.</p><p>Provide timely, actionable technical feedback.</p><p>Support a culture of collaboration, ownership, accountability, and</p><p>continuous improvement.</p><p>Lead through example by modelling strong engineering judgement and</p><p>professionalism.</p><p>Improve reliability & operations</p><p>Improve deployment reliability, monitoring, and observability across the</p><p>stream.</p><p>Participate in and lead production incident response where needed.</p><p>Drive actionable post-mortems and operational improvements.</p><p>Advocate for proactive quality practices that reduce long-term operational</p><p>risk.</p><p>Collaborate cross-functionally</p><p>Partner closely with Product and QA to ensure the team understands what</p><p>is being built, why it matters, and how quality is maintained.</p><p>Simplify complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders.</p><p>Communicate risks, dependencies, and trade-offs clearly and early.</p><p></p><h4><strong>What Weʼre Looking For</strong></h4><p>Technical experience</p><p>Strong professional experience with backend development using Python.</p><p>Experience building modern frontend applications Svelte and/or jQuery</p><p>preferred).</p><p>Strong understanding of APIs, distributed systems, integrations, and</p><p>scalable application design.</p><p>Experience working across complex product ecosystems and multiple</p><p>technical surfaces.</p><p>Experience with any of the following is beneficial:</p><p>AWS cloud infrastructure</p><p>Browser/email extensions</p><p>CRM integrations</p><p>OpenAI APIs / LLM-powered applications</p><p>Observability and operational tooling</p><p>How We Expect Senior Engineers to</p><p>Operate</p><p>At SourceWhale, senior engineers are expected to create impact beyond</p><p>individual contribution.</p><p></p><h4>You will likely thrive here if you:</h4><p>Drive impact through technical leadership and execution</p><p>Hold high standards for quality, maintainability, and delivery</p><p>Coach and elevate engineers around you</p><p>Think deeply about systems, scalability, and operational resilience</p><p>Communicate clearly and proactively</p><p>Take ownership of outcomes, not just tasksSenior Software Engineer - Job Description4</p><p>Balance pragmatism with craftsmanship</p><p>Care about the product and customer impact behind the work</p><p></p><h4>What Success Looks Like</h4><p>Over time, successful Senior Engineers at SourceWhale:</p><p>Become trusted owners of complex systems and delivery areas</p><p>Improve engineering quality across the wider stream, not just their own</p><p>work</p><p>Lead complex technical initiatives involving multiple engineers</p><p>Raise standards through mentoring, reviews, and technical leadership</p><p>Make sound technical trade-offs that improve both delivery and long-term</p><p>maintainability</p><p>Build trust with stakeholders through clear communication and predictable</p><p>delivery</p><p>Reduce operational risk through thoughtful design and engineering</p><p>discipline</p><p></p><h4>Growth Path</h4><p>This role can evolve in multiple directions depending on your strengths and</p><p>interests, including:</p><p>Principal Engineer — deep technical expertise and cross-stream technical</p><p>standards</p><p>Systems Architect — broader architectural ownership and systems</p><p>strategy</p><p>Technical Leadership — stream leadership, people development, and</p><p>operational stewardship</p><p></p><h4>Our Engineering Principles</h4><p>These principles guide how we work and grow together:</p><p>Teamwork: We collaborate openly, communicate honestly, and celebrate</p><p>shared success.</p><p>Product quality: We take pride in delivering robust, high-impact solutions</p><p>for our users.</p><p>Peer leadership: We foster continuous learning, feedback, and</p><p>accountability.</p><p>Our teams focus on sustained product outcomes, not one-off projects. We</p><p>deliver continuous value, evolve based on feedback, minimise dependencies,</p><p>and operate with transparency and collective responsibility.</p><p></p><h4>Benefits</h4><p>25 days annual leave (plus public holidays)</p><p>MacBook + any additional tech or software you need</p><p>Flexible working arrangements</p><p>Private Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance through Aviva</p><p>Income Protection Insurance</p><p>Extended mental health cover and Employee Assistance Programme</p><p>Compassionate leave policy</p><p>Private pension contributions Royal London)</p><p>Monthly company social events</p><p>Regular in-person hackathons</p>