Engineering Lead

Department: Engineering

Location: London

Compensation: £90K – £110K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

About the Role

We’re looking for a senior product engineer to operate as a technical leader within Caribou — someone who can own major parts of the product and help shape both what we build and how we build it.

This is not a typical engineering role. You’ll act as a de facto technical co-pilot to the founders: driving architecture, shaping product direction, and translating ambiguous business problems into high-quality, scalable solutions.

You should be a highly experienced full-stack engineer with strong product instincts, a track record of building from 0→1, and the ability to operate with very high autonomy. You’re comfortable working solo when needed — across engineering, product, and design — and care deeply about craft and user experience.

With the rapid evolution of AI and LLMs, you’re expected to be at the frontier: leveraging new tools, paradigms, and techniques to move faster and build better products.

You’ll work directly with the founders and operate at the intersection of engineering, product, AI, and design — turning complex, ambiguous problems into elegant, customer-facing solutions.

You Will Be Doing...

• Leading full-stack development of core product areas from problem definition through to production and iteration

• Acting as a technical owner for major parts of the product, making key architecture and infrastructure decisions

• Driving product discovery: speaking to users, mapping workflows, identifying opportunities, and shaping what gets built

• Leveraging AI/LLMs pragmatically — to accelerate development, power product features, and rethink complex workflows (especially in tax)

• Collaborating closely with founders and domain experts to deeply understand user problems and translate them into product improvements

• Raising the bar for engineering quality: maintainable code, strong abstractions, and scalable systems

• Improving engineering velocity and processes in a fast-moving, early-stage environment

Requirements

• 8–12+ years of experience as a full-stack or product-focused engineer, ideally in high-growth or early-stage environments

• Proven track record of building and shipping products from 0→1, owning both product and technical decisions

• Strong technical depth across modern frontend (React/TypeScript or similar) and backend systems (Go, Node, Python, or similar)

• Experience leading architecture and making high-impact technical decisions in ambiguous environments

• Strong product intuition — able to drive discovery, user interviews, and feature shaping, not just execution

• Deep interest in AI/LLMs, with hands-on experience integrating or applying them in real-world systems

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain trade-offs and influence product direction

• Highly self-sufficient, with strong judgment on when to collaborate vs. move independently

• Experience in early-stage startups or similarly high-autonomy roles

About Caribou

International tax is a rigged system. Tax rules get ever-more complicated, compliance gets more expensive, and the Big Four controls the expertise. They charge fees that only giant companies can afford, while smaller businesses are left flying blind.

Caribou is a tax platform designed to make international tax accessible to every global business. We’re fixing Transfer Pricing first, where one million businesses are in need, but only ten thousand experts exist.

Our backers include Y Combinator, Accel, Lakestar and angel investors who were founders or executives of leading companies in London and San Francisco.

Perks & Benefits (for UK-based full-time employees)

• Competitive salary

• Significant equity — we want this to feel like a founder-level opportunity

• 100% book subsidy

• Pension

• Health insurance

• Custom WFH equipment setup