Principal Engineer (Go) – AI & Large-Scale Intelligence Systems at REF Agency

, , United Kingdom -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

16 Oct, 26

Salary

0.0

Posted On

18 Jul, 26

Experience

10 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Yes

Skills

Go, Distributed Systems, System Architecture, SaaS, API Design, SQL, Cloud-Native Development, Data Pipelines, Mentoring, Multi-tenancy, Streaming Frameworks, Batch Processing, Backend Engineering, Production Operations, Technical Leadership, Scalability

Industry

Description

Role ID: TT-TEC-PE-UK-001 Location: United Kingdom (Remote) Employment Type: Full-time Experience Level: Senior / Principal ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY An innovative AI technology company is building a next-generation platform that helps organisations detect and respond to disinformation attacks in real time. By combining machine learning, large-scale data processing, and advanced intelligence techniques, the platform enables customers to identify emerging threats and respond within minutes. This is a rare opportunity to join at an early stage and shape both the product and the engineering culture. This is a hands-on engineering leadership position focused on building production-grade systems rather than research. The Role We're looking for an experienced Principal Engineer with deep expertise in Go and large-scale distributed systems to help architect and build a high-performance intelligence platform from the ground up. You'll work closely with senior technical leadership to define architecture, establish engineering standards, and deliver scalable solutions capable of processing massive volumes of internet-scale data. This role combines technical leadership with hands-on software engineering and offers significant ownership over technical decisions. Key Responsibilities * Design, build and operate highly scalable backend systems. * Develop distributed services capable of processing internet-scale datasets. * Build and optimise data ingestion, enrichment and analysis pipelines. * Architect reliable, resilient and high-performance production systems. * Develop rich multi-tenant web applications. * Balance immediate product delivery with long-term platform scalability. * Establish engineering standards, testing practices and code quality. * Mentor engineers and contribute to technical decision-making. * Work closely with product, machine learning and threat intelligence teams. Requirements Essential * Extensive commercial experience developing software with Go (Golang). * Proven experience scaling highly transactional production platforms. * Strong background building distributed backend systems. * Experience developing multi-tenant SaaS or enterprise web applications. * Hands-on experience with streaming and batch data processing frameworks. * Experience designing high-performance APIs and scalable architectures. * Strong SQL knowledge and experience with relational databases. * Excellent understanding of cloud-native development and production operations. * Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical initiatives. * Strong written and verbal communication skills in English. Highly Desirable Experience within one or more of the following industries: * Cyber Security * National Security * Threat Intelligence * Financial Services * KYC / AML platforms * Fraud Detection * Risk Intelligence Experience building systems that process: * Internet-scale datasets * High-dimensional data * High-throughput ingestion pipelines * Real-time intelligence platforms Tech Stack Go · Python · SQL (Postgres) · NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis, Neo4J, ElasticSearch/OpenSearch) · Vector databases (Pinecone, Qdrant) · Streaming frameworks (Benthos, Flink) · Batch processing (Spark) · Airflow · Frontend (Go with Templ and HTMX) What You'll Bring * Strong systems design and architecture skills. * Pragmatic approach to solving complex engineering challenges. * Passion for building reliable, scalable production software. * Ability to thrive in an early-stage, fast-moving environment. * Ownership mindset with a bias toward execution. * Collaborative leadership style and mentoring experience. What's Offered * Competitive salary * Equity / Share options * 25 days annual leave * Additional day off on your birthday * Private pension contributions * Flexible remote working * Quarterly team events * Opportunity to shape a cutting-edge AI platform from its earliest stages Interested? If you're passionate about building highly scalable distributed systems, enjoy solving complex engineering challenges, and want to help create technology that has real-world impact, we'd love to hear from you. Apply now with your CV and a brief overview of your experience with Go, distributed systems, and large-scale production platforms.

Responsibilities

Architect and build a high-performance intelligence platform focused on detecting disinformation attacks using Go and distributed systems. Lead technical decision-making, establish engineering standards, and mentor engineers while delivering scalable production-grade backend systems.