About
Hike is representing a client building technology that helps people have natural conversations across languages. They're a small, well funded team tackling a difficult problem: making live translation work in everyday conversations. This is an opportunity to join early and help build the business behind the technology.
You'll be part of the senior leadership committee - sitting alongside the CEO, Head of Engineering, Head of Product, Head of GTM and Chief of Staff. You own the AI direction, the model architecture, and the long-term technical bets made on how this product thinks, learns and scales. This is a founding-level role in everything but title.
Responsibilities
•You own the AI direction, the model architecture, and the long-term technical bets made on how this product thinks, learns and scales.
Requirements
•You have deep hands-on experience building and shipping AI models - not just fine-tuning, but understanding what's under the hood
•You've worked on problems that are genuinely hard - real-time processing, speech, translation, or low-latency inference would be a strong signal
•You're the kind of engineer who came up through places like DeepMind, top research labs, or early-stage AI teams where the bar was exceptionally high
•You're curious, sharp and energised by unsolved problems rather than comfortable ones
•You're someone people trust with decisions that are hard to reverse - you think carefully, communicate clearly, and don't cut corners on what matters
•You can work independently at a senior level while staying closely aligned with a small, fast-moving team
Conditions & Benefits
•A competitive salary, benchmarked to the role and your experience. They're happy to discuss specifics early on.
•Meaningful equity as an early employee.
•Workplace pension with employer contributions.
•Recognition and rewards for great work.
•25 days off, pension, and the standard benefits provided everywhere else.
•Amazing London offices: two spaces, one floor, 360° views across London - one side built for collaboration and energy, the other quiet and calm for low-distraction focus work.
•A fully stocked fridge, a proper lounge, and a team that genuinely likes spending time together.
•You shape your own environment - lighting, desk placement, headphones, a setup that works for you.
•Flexible hours around a small set of shared core hours, plus protected focus time.
•Ownership and autonomy - you don't need five meetings to deploy a solution.
•A clear first-month plan and someone you can ask anything.
•A team that takes the mission seriously but not itself - socials, passion, and building something they believe in.
•Benefits are still being shaped - they'll consider suggestions that make a real difference to your quality of life.
