Founding Engineer (Full Stack, Senior)

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.