Principal Backend Engineer, Heron Data
£190-270k
+ 0.1%–0.15% equity
More information about location
Automation for document-heavy workflows
Open for applications
Automation for document-heavy workflows
21-100 employees
Open for applications
£190-270k
+ 0.1%–0.15% equity
More information about location
21-100 employees
Company mission
To save human lifetimes of tedious, white-collar work.
Role
Who you are
- The best person for this role has likely spent 8+ years building and scaling backend systems, with at least a couple of meaningful "at-bats" taking a system from early stage to serious scale. You've probably worked in B2B SaaS and have opinions (earned the hard way) about how to build systems that are both reliable and fast to develop on
- You have a strong CS foundation and are deeply technical. You write code, review architectures, and debug production issues
- You've seen and built backend systems scale at companies growing from Series A to Series C+ (roughly $5M to $100M+ ARR). You know what breaks and when
- You have recent production experience with Python and cloud infrastructure
- You've dealt with sensitive data at volume: financial, health, or similarly regulated domains
- You're an IC at heart. You might set direction and mentor others, but you want to build, not manage
- You care about getting things right but also about shipping. We're a startup. Pragmatism matters
What the job involves
- We've built a document automation and workflow orchestration platform that lenders, funders and fintechs rely on to make real decisions. It's working, customers love it, and we're onboarding new ones faster than ever
- The challenge is that our backend was built for speed-to-market, and now we need to make it built for scale. Concretely, that means:
- Abstractions that let us move fast: The backend systems and patterns that let a 15-person engineering team ship product confidently without breaking things for existing customers
- Multi-tenancy at scale: Dozens of enterprise customers sharing the same cloud infrastructure, each with different data sensitivity requirements, SLAs, and integration patterns
- Data volume and velocity: High-throughput processing of financial documents (bank statements, tax returns, pay stubs) with ML pipelines that need to be fast, accurate, and reliable
- Security and compliance: Sensitive financial data handled to exacting standards
- We’re excited about this challenge because it is the kind of problem that shows up when things are going well! We're hiring this role because we couldn’t be more confident in our trajectory but need to build the foundations for the next 10x
- This is a hands-on, high-autonomy IC role. You'll work directly with our CTO (Dom) and Head of Engineering (Oli), and you'll have real ownership over the systems that matter most
- In your first few months, you'll likely:
- Assess our current backend architecture and identify the highest-leverage areas for improvement around reliability, scalability, and security
- Partner with the platform and infrastructure team to design and implement the core abstractions (data model, data pipeline reliability, deployment patterns) that will support our next phase of growth
- Set the technical direction for how we scale our infrastructure from handling hundreds of customers to thousands, and from millions of documents to tens of millions
- Raise the bar on backend engineering practices across the team: not through process for process's sake, but by building systems that make the right thing the easy thing
- Longer-term, this role shapes how Heron's entire platform evolves. You'll be the person who ensures our backend can support whatever product throws at it
Application process
- Initial screen (20 minutes) - conversation to discuss what you're looking for, what Heron offers, and to see if there's a good fit
- Technical screening interview (up to 60 minutes) - interactive technical session with one or two of our engineers where you will review a pull request and then do some live coding to build on it
- Team interviews (2-3 hours in total) - mix of technical and behavioral conversations with Heron teammates and founders. You'll get a feel for the people you'll work with and how we approach problems, and we'll get to know how you collaborate, communicate, and think
- References - 2 references from people you've worked with who can speak to your impact, working style, and contributions in a professional setting
Salary benchmarks
Our take
NY-based Heron Data uses advanced AI and LLMs to automate document-heavy workflows. It stands out in the automation market for this laser-focus on handling documents - which traditionally cause problems for businesses looking to reduce manual work.
The company's flagship product is capable of streamlining underwriting for small business lenders and specialty finance companies. It integrates into existing CRMs directly, enabling customers to easily deliver their services faster, more accurately, and fairly.
With over 150 clients across industries like fintech, insurance, and law, the future is an exciting one for Heron. It already handles over 350,000 documents a week, for FDIC-backed lenders to leading insurers, which puts it in an ideal position for expansion.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Jul 2025
$16m
SERIES A
Sep 2020
$1.2m
SEED
Total funding: $17.4m
Company benefits
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage — including dependents
- Regular pay benchmarking to keep compensation aligned with impact
- Top-quality tech and a full desk setup
- 401k with an employer match
- Support for family planning and fertility care through Carrot
- Flexible PTO (“take what you need” policy)
Company HQ
Kips Bay, New York, NY
Leadership
Johannes Jaeckle
(CEO & Co-Founder)Operations Manager and Managing Director of Segovia Technology UK from 2015 to 2019. CEO and Managing Director of Taptap Send from 2018 to 2019.
Dominic Kwok
(CTO & Co-Founder)Experience as Data Scientist for Spotify and Facebook. Manager of Data Science for Revolut from 2019 to 2020.
Jamie Parker
(CRO & Co-Founder)Experience as Founder of The Student White Tie Company from 2014 to 2016. Associate and Manager of AlphaSights from 2015 to 2020.
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