Software Engineer

About the role

When someone dies, their family inherits a mountain of admin. A will is the single most useful thing that makes it smaller, but only if it’s correct, current and actually says what the person meant. That’s the bar our code has to clear, every time.

As a software engineer, you’ll own features from the first conversation to production. You won’t get a ticket with the answer already written on it. You’ll get a problem, the context behind it, and someone to think it through with.

The scope you own grows as fast as you do. Small team, lots of surface area: if you want more responsibility, it’s there to take.

The team

Engineering is small but mighty, and growing. You’ll work alongside Product, Design and the legal specialists who know every edge case by heart. We’re growing, and you’ll join the team where you’ll make the most difference as roles fill. You’ll have a say in where that is.

We work in small, stable teams that own a product area end to end, from the first conversation with legal to the alert that fires if it breaks. Nobody hands you a ticket and walks away. Teams decide how to solve the problems in front of them, and often which problems are worth solving at all. Decisions are written down, reviewed kindly and revisited when we learn something new.

We’re AI-native. Frontier models, best-in-class agentic tooling, and nobody counts tokens. That pushes the job away from boilerplate and towards the parts that need a person: architecture, judgement, and getting the detail right. We ship to production 20+ times a day across 7+ services.

What you’ll do

Most weeks are a mix of building, reviewing and learning the domain. Some of the work you’ll pick up:

• Build features end to end: the API, the data model, the UI if it needs one, and the tests that keep it honest.
• Turn a family’s answers into correct, signed documents, edge cases included.
• Use agentic tools to move fast, and review what they write as carefully as you’d review a colleague.
• Own what you ship in production. Dashboards, alerts and the occasional fix are yours.
• Bring opinions to design reviews. We’d rather hear the half-formed idea than miss it.
• [ROLE-SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITY]

What you’ll ship in your first 90 days

• [ ]Week one: first PR in production, paired with someone who knows the codebase.
• [ ]Ship a feature you scoped yourself, from first conversation to customers.
• [ ]Know a corner of the system well enough that people bring their questions about it to you. [e.g. AREA]
• [ ]Spot something that bugs you about how we work and fix it, without asking permission.

What we’re looking for

We care more about how you approach problems than a list of keywords. That said, here’s what tends to make someone successful in this role.

What you’ll work with

languages = ["python 3.12", "typescript"]   # typed, everywhere
backend   = "fastapi"
frontend  = "next.js"
runs_on   = "aws lambda"                    # serverless
data      = "postgresql"
infra     = "terraform"
quality   = ["pytest", "ruff", "mypy"]
review    = ["humans", "greptile"]
agents    = ["claude code", "whatever you're fastest in"]
observe   = ["cloudwatch", "sentry"]

The honest bits

Every codebase has them. Better you hear it from us.

debt

Part of our estate is a PHP service we’re migrating off. You might be the one who retires it.

rope

You’ll get responsibility earlier than you might elsewhere. Sometimes that’s uncomfortable. We’ll back you through it.

regs

Regulated, sensitive data. Some changes need a second pair of eyes from legal, and that’s on purpose.

pace

We ship often, but “move fast and break things” isn’t an option when the thing is someone’s will.

You’ll probably enjoy this if

• +You want to own outcomes, not just close tickets.
• +You learn fastest by shipping something and seeing what happens.
• +You can talk about death plainly. Our users are planning for it or living through it.

Don’t tick every box? Apply anyway. We hire for how you think, not a checklist.

What we offer

Listed, not teased. If something matters to you and isn’t here, ask in your first call.

holiday

27 days + bank holidays + your birthday

pension

3% contribution

working pattern

Hybrid. In the office Tuesday to Thursday at Monument, London

contract

Permanent

learning

Time carved out for it, plus budget agreed case by case

a will, on us

A free will for you, and a discount for friends and family

tools

Whatever makes you fastest. Frontier models, agentic tooling, no token budget.

ownership

Real decisions from week one. You’ll be trusted with the call and backed when it’s hard.

1. 1

   Intro call30 min · video

   A relaxed conversation with the hiring manager about what you’ve worked on and what you’re looking for. Ask us anything.

   you’ll meet the hiring manager · nothing to prepare

2. 2

   Meet our People team30 min · video

   A conversation about how you like to work, what you need from a team to do your best work, and the practical stuff: start dates, adjustments, anything you’re unsure about.

   you’ll meet our People team · nothing to prepare

3. 3

   Pairing and design~2.5 hours · on site

   Two parts, with the people you’d work with. First, pair on a real-shaped problem on your own laptop with your own tools. Look things up, use agents, think out loud. Then sketch a small system together and talk through the trade-offs. We care how you reason, not whether you’ve built this exact thing before. No take-home, no trick questions.

   you’ll meet the team · bring your laptop, we’ll send setup notes in advance

4. 4

   Final conversation45 min

   Meet our founder. Talk about where Octopus Legacy is going, where you’d fit in it, and anything you still want to know. It runs both ways.

   you’ll meet our founder · bring your questions

5. ✓

   Decisionwithin 48 hours

   A clear yes or no, with written feedback either way. If it’s a yes, we’ll talk through the offer on a call. No exploding deadlines.

   from the hiring manager