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Founding Engineer (Full Stack, Senior) at Shipherd | London, UK (Hybrid) Stage: Pre-Seed | Equity: Meaningful | No Agencies
We're not hiring an engineer. We're hiring a builder.
At Shipherd, we're automating the most painful part of running an eCommerce business: customer support. Our AI-native platform integrates with leading helpdesk platforms to autonomously resolve support tickets for online retailers, so their teams can stop firefighting and start scaling.
We're backed by pre-seed funding, live with design partners, and moving fast. This is a rare chance to be the first engineering hire at a company with real traction, and to shape the technical foundation from day one.
What you'll actually do
You won't be maintaining someone else's codebase. You'll be writing it.
- Architect and build the core Shipherd product across the full stack: from polished React/Next.js interfaces to robust Python backend services
- Own and evolve our Flask and FastAPI services that power ticket resolution, AI orchestration, and third-party integrations
- Build and maintain integrations with leading helpdesk and eCommerce marketplace platforms
- Work directly with the founding team to translate customer pain into shipped product
- Set the technical bar as we grow the team around you
You're a fit if...
- You have 5+ years of full stack experience with genuine depth in both React/Next.js on the frontend and Python (Flask or FastAPI) on the backend
- You've built with LLMs in production and understand the difference between a demo and a reliable system
- You're comfortable owning decisions when there's no playbook
- You've worked at an early-stage startup before, or you've been burning to
- Bonus: experience with eCommerce platforms, helpdesk tools, or marketplace APIs (Amazon SP-API, eBay, etc.)
Who you'll be working with
You'll be joining a founding team with serious pedigree.
- Our CEO -- former Director at Amazon overseeing a 1 billion-unit UK fulfilment network, and a key leader during a $240 million raise at a $1 billion valuation. He has lived the eCommerce operations problem at scale and built Shipherd to solve it.
- Our COO -- 20 years in telco and enterprise software, including scaling a major enterprise communications platform to 10 million seats as part of the core product team during its hypergrowth years.
- Our CTO -- co-founded and served as CTO of a company he took from zero to unicorn, and was an early engineer at Skype. You'll be his first engineering hire at Shipherd.
Why Shipherd, why now
- Genuine 0 to 1 ownership -- you'll have a direct line to product direction, not a ticket queue
- Meaningful equity in a company where the ground floor is still available
- A market that's ready -- eCommerce support is broken, AI is mature enough to fix it, and we're already proving it with real customers
- Learn from people who've done it -- this founding team has scaled operations at some of the world's biggest tech companies and built businesses from scratch to unicorn
The stack
React · Next.js · Python · Flask · FastAPI · LLM orchestration · AWS/GCP · PostgreSQL
We care more about your instincts than your stack history, but hands-on experience with the above matters here.
The details
Location: London, UK (Hybrid) Type: Full-time Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity Reporting to: CTO (previously took a company from 0 to unicorn)
Right to work in the UK is required. We are unable to offer visa sponsorship.
Please note: we are not accepting applications from recruitment agencies.
Sound like you?
We keep our process lean. Apply directly or send us a message telling us what you've built and why this resonates.
Visit shipherd.ai to learn more.
