Lead Software Engineer — Clinical AI

Lead Software Engineer — Clinical AI Imperial College London spin-out · London, UK (hybrid) · Full-time · Head of Engineering track

About us We are an Imperial College London med-tech spin-out building AI-powered clinical decision-support tools certified as Software as a Medical Device (SaMD). Our flagship product identifies inpatients at risk of preventable harm from EHR data, giving NHS trusts time to act before harm occurs. We are venture-backed, including by Parkwalk Advisors and the Imperial College Enterprise Fund, and are deploying with major NHS trusts. We are a small, high-ownership team operating at the intersection of clinical AI and healthcare infrastructure.

The role This is a foundational hire and the most senior engineering position after the CTO. You will own the technical core of a production clinical AI platform — backend services, ML infrastructure and hospital data integrations — and operate as the CTO's second-in-command from day one. As we scale clinical deployments through our next funding round, the defined path for this role is Head of Engineering: owning technical strategy, hiring and leading the engineering team, and sitting at the table for product, regulatory and commercial decisions. Progression milestones are agreed up front and tied to company growth.

What you'll do

• Own and extend the backend and ML infrastructure of a production SaMD system processing real patient data
• Design and implement integrations with hospital systems (EHR, HL7/FHIR), including partnerships with major healthcare data platforms
• Build and maintain Python/Azure-based services — APIs, data pipelines, monitoring and audit frameworks
• Write software to medical-device quality standards, producing design documentation and verification evidence that stands up in a regulatory audit
• Lead projects end-to-end and mentor engineers as the team grows around you
• Work directly with clinical, data science and regulatory colleagues, with a direct line to the CTO and CEO

About you — required

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience with a strong Python background
• Proven experience building and operating production services on Azure or AWS
• Comfort with data-heavy systems — pipelines, databases, REST APIs — and a taste for clean architecture
• Experience leading projects or mentoring engineers — you set technical direction rather than wait for it
• Strong written communication; able to document work in a way that survives a regulatory audit
• Right to work in the UK — we are unable to sponsor visas at this stage

Nice to have

• Experience in a regulated software environment — medical devices (IEC 62304 / ISO 13485), fintech, aerospace or similar
• Familiarity with FHIR/HL7 or clinical EHR data systems
• Exposure to ML model deployment or monitoring in production

Tech stack Python · Azure · Terraform · ML pipelines · FHIR/HL7 · Docker · GitHub Actions

Compensation & benefits Salary £95,000–£125,000, depending on experience. Equity: EMI share options — a meaningful early-stage allocation. 25 days annual leave + bank holidays; workplace pension. Personal L&D budget. Flexible hybrid, London base. Access to clinical and academic networks across the NHS, Imperial and UCL.

Our process Intro call (30 minutes) → technical deep-dive → systems design session with the CTO → conversation with the CEO → offer. We move in weeks, not months.

How to apply Send a short note about yourself and your CV to careers@prelego.ai.

SEARCH NOTES (recruiter) Two cohorts to be run and compared: (A) regulated-software depth — SaMD/medtech, IEC 62304 / ISO 13485, FHIR/HL7, or regulated fintech/aerospace/defence engineers with Python; (B) strong senior/lead Python + Azure/AWS backend and data-platform engineers where regulated exposure is a bonus. Hard gates in both: UK right to work (no sponsorship), London commutable, 6+ years professional engineering, genuine technical leadership rather than pure IC.