Founding Engineer / Technical Lead – AI & SaaS
Company: Plus UAE Group – New Software Venture
Location: Kochi, Kerala
Job Type: Full-Time | Work from Office
Position: Employee #1 – Founding Engineering Team
Experience: 3–10 Years
Compensation: Competitive, based on proven capability and startup experience
We Are Building a New Software Company
Plus UAE Group, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, is establishing a new software and AI technology venture in Kochi, Kerala.
We are looking for our first technical employee.
This is not a conventional developer vacancy.
We need a hands-on Founding Engineer / Technical Lead who has previously helped build a startup, SaaS platform or software product from 0→1 and understands what it takes to move from:
Business Idea → Product Architecture → MVP → Production → Customers → Scale → Engineering Team
You will initially work directly with the founders/management and take significant ownership of the technology.
Mandatory: 0→1 Startup/Product Experience
We are specifically looking for candidates who have done at least one of the following:
- Worked as an early/founding engineer in a startup
- Helped establish the technology function of a new software company
- Built a SaaS/software product from scratch
- Personally taken a product from concept/MVP to production
- Built and launched your own software startup/product
- Joined a very early-stage company and helped build its initial technology platform
Experience only maintaining existing applications in large organisations will not be sufficient for this position.
We want a builder and problem-solver, not simply someone with a long list of technologies on a CV.
What You Will Do
As our first engineering hire, you will:
- Convert business ideas into technical products
- Define initial product and system architecture
- Build MVPs rapidly
- Develop frontend and backend applications
- Design databases and APIs
- Build secure authentication and user-management systems
- Integrate AI/LLM capabilities
- Develop AI agents and automation workflows
- Integrate CRM, ERP, communication and third-party platforms
- Deploy applications to cloud infrastructure
- Establish Git, testing, CI/CD and development standards
- Implement application security and access controls
- Monitor and troubleshoot production applications
- Document architecture, code and infrastructure
- Evaluate build-vs-buy technology decisions
- Control technical debt while maintaining development speed
- Participate in recruiting future developers
- Mentor and technically lead the engineering team as it grows
Most importantly, you must be capable of shipping working products without needing a large existing team around you.
Products We Intend to Build
Our initial technology roadmap includes:
- B2B SaaS applications
- AI-powered business automation
- AI agents
- Business compliance platforms
- CRM and workflow automation
- Sales and lead-generation intelligence
- Client portals
- Document AI
- Business dashboards
- API integrations
- Internal enterprise applications
- Web and mobile platforms
Initial markets include the UAE, Saudi Arabia and India, with international expansion planned.
Technical Capability
We are flexible about the exact stack.
However, you should have strong practical capability across modern technologies such as:
Frontend
- React / Next.js
- TypeScript / JavaScript
- Modern responsive UI development
Backend
- Python / FastAPI / Django
- and/or
- Node.js / NestJS / ExpressData
- PostgreSQL / MySQL
- Redis
- Database design and optimisation
- REST APIs / Webhooks
AI & Automation
Experience with some of the following is highly desirable:
- OpenAI / Claude / Gemini APIs
- LLM application development
- RAG
- Vector databases
- AI agents
- Prompt engineering
- LangChain / LangGraph or similar
- n8n or similar automation platforms
- AI-assisted development tools
Infrastructure
- AWS / Azure / GCP
- Docker
- Git / GitHub
- CI/CD
- Cloud deployment
- Logging and monitoring
- Authentication / RBAC
- Application and API security
The Person We Want
You should be someone who can receive a business problem on Monday and start turning it into a working product rather than waiting weeks for perfect specifications.
We value:
Ownership → Speed → Engineering Quality → Security → Commercial Thinking → Delivery
You should be comfortable challenging requirements when there is a better technical or commercial solution.
We want someone who thinks like a product builder, not only a programmer.
Evidence Matters More Than Certificates
During selection, we will ask you to demonstrate what you have actually built.
Be prepared to explain:
- What startup/company did you help build?
- At what stage did you join?
- How many people were in the engineering team?
- What did you personally build?
- What architecture did you choose and why?
- How quickly did you launch the MVP?
- Did real customers use the product?
- What happened when the system reached production?
- What major technical problem did you solve?
- Did you recruit or manage developers?
- What would you do differently today?
Candidates should be able to demonstrate their contribution through live products, GitHub, portfolio, architecture examples or other verifiable evidence wherever possible.
Selection Process
Stage 1 – CV & Startup Experience Screening
Stage 2 – Portfolio / GitHub / Product Review
Stage 3 – Technical & Architecture Interview
Stage 4 – Practical Paid 0→1 Product Challenge
Stage 5 – Founder/Management Interview
We are interested in working software and demonstrated thinking, not memorised interview answers.
Growth Opportunity
This person will enter at the beginning of the technology venture.
The expected growth path for the right candidate is:
Founding Engineer → Technical Lead → Head of Engineering → CTO-track
Leadership titles will be earned through demonstrated product delivery, technical ownership, team building and business results.
How to Apply
Please apply with your CV and provide the following information:
- Current location
- Current CTC
- Expected CTC
- Notice period
- GitHub profile
- LinkedIn profile
- Portfolio/live product links
- Startup(s) you helped build
- Your position when you joined the startup
- Team size when you joined
- Product(s) you personally built from scratch
- Your exact contribution to those products
- AI/LLM applications you have personally developed
- Number of developers you have led or mentored
Important
Please do not apply solely because you match the technology stack.
We are specifically looking for someone with demonstrated 0→1 startup/product-building capability who wants to help build a software company from its earliest stage in Kochi.
Work Location: In person
