Job Specifications
At Xylo, we are on a mission to transform local government planning services with AI.
Every new housing, energy, and infrastructure project starts with planning permission, yet delays continue to grow, meaning society gets less of what it desperately needs. Planning departments are chronically understaffed, drowning in complexity, and stuck with software from the 1990s. This is a trillion-dollar global problem.
After 200+ hours with planning officers, we've built two products: Core, an AI-powered workspace that boosts planning team capacity, and Patch, which helps councils deliver faster pre-application advice while increasing revenue. Our vision is to become the operating system for local governments.
Hybrid or London based, Full-time, Permanent, £80k-£110k
The Role
We're looking for a product-minded full stack engineer who wants to move fast, have autonomy and transform how governments work. You'll build the product and culture from the ground up, working directly with co-founders and customers.
You’ll:
Build new features end-to-end, from concept to deployment
Work directly with users and see your code reduce hours of manual work the same week you ship it
Have autonomy to take risks and make difficult decisions
Contribute to technical decisions, architecture and product direction
Ship fast, test ideas and iterate based on real feedback
Help shape the foundations of our engineering culture
Who you are
A full stack engineer with 4+ years of experience building and shipping products
You're product-focused and curious about user problems
You've worked at startups and are comfortable with ambiguity, ownership and moving fast
You take pride in writing clean, reliable code and seeing it make a real impact
You believe AI should make people's work better, not replace them
Bonus if you:
Have taken an unconventional path—we actively look for people who've taken meaningful career risks (our team includes a former sculptor and a jazz pianist)
Have built or worked with AI products or LLMs
Have shipped 0 to 1 before or have a founder mindset
Care about housing, climate or public sector reform
Our stack
React, TypeScript, Supabase, AWS, Terraform, Vite, Braintrust, Inngest.
We use LLMs to filter through thousands of data sources and surface only what's relevant. Our AI handles automated research, validation checks, and report generation with domain frameworks and evals that ensure accuracy. Everything we build is human-in-the-loop: AI recommends and guides, officers apply the planning judgment.
The team
We’re a small team of builders who care deeply about real-world impact. We over-index on people with non-traditional backgrounds and unique career trajectories.
Habs (Co-founder) – 7 years as a software engineer and team lead at startups including Marshmallow. Leads product and our responsible AI strategy to make AI accurate and impactful for our users. Previously a sculptor and proud Korean female founder.
Dermot (Co-founder) – Ex-lawyer and VC who backed leading applied AI teams. Leads commercial strategy, sales and ops. Budding kitesurfer and fitness fad enthusiast (currently Hyrox).
Tim (CTO) – 2x construction tech founder, led AI strategy at a Series B climate tech company. Leads technical build, AI architecture, and product design. Sighthound trainer and carpenter.
Sam (Founding Engineer) – Former professional jazz pianist and climate tech engineer. Shipped 4 PRs on day 1. Top 1% on chess.com — challenge at your peril.
How we work
We’re based in the London AI Hub in Clerkenwell with fixed desks, roof gardens and dogs
If you’re not in London, we support hybrid working with in-person team days in London every 2 weeks
Meaningful equity — real ownership that reflects your impact
We use AI to code faster without compromising standards—guardrails ensure we ship quality, not slop
Interview process
Intro chat (30 mins) with Habs or Dermot (Co-founders)
Technical interview (1 hour) with Tim (CTO)
Culture and ambition conversation (in-person preferred)
Offer
Apply or refer
Planning has been broken for decades. We're the first team moving fast enough—with responsible AI—to fix it. Help us free councils from slow incumbents and ship software that works, in weeks not years.
We're still a small team building this role around the right person. If you're interested—or know someone brilliant—we'd love to hear from you.
Join our founding team and set the bar for public service excellence.
Our approach to hiring: We believe the best teams come from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Everyone who interviews with us will receive thoughtful feedback—whether you join us or not.
Got questions? Email us at contact@buildxylo.ai
Visit our website: www.buildxylo.ai