Senior Full-Stack Engineer

About Open

Open is an AI-driven company revolutionizing the global insurance landscape by making it more transparent, economical, and user-centric. Founded in 2016, Open is a certified B Corporation with operations spanning ANZ and the UK. The company is committed to creating modern infrastructure to simplify and enhance insurance experiences.

Role Overview

As a Senior Full-Stack Engineer based in London, you will be pivotal in shaping the UK side of Open Embedded, Open's flagship platform that enables brands to integrate various insurance products directly into their customer journeys. Working primarily onsite, you will collaborate closely with UK partners to translate their requirements into seamless live integrations while maintaining the platform's operational excellence in the UK region.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end UK partner integrations, managing conversations from initial technical discussions through to live embedded journeys.
• Analyze and clarify partner requirements, identifying which demands can be fulfilled through existing platform capabilities and which require new developments.
• Accelerate partner launch timelines every quarter using modern software delivery methods.
• Provide early, transparent updates on project sequencing, risks, and trade-offs to Product and partner-facing teams.
• Recruit, lead, and mentor UK engineering talent as the team expands.
• Collaborate with AI agents to enhance workflow efficiency in coding, testing, reviewing, and troubleshooting.
• Leverage AI to reduce manual tasks in partner support, including triage and log analysis.
• Implement safe deployment of GenAI technologies within regulated environments using evaluation and human-in-the-loop systems.
• Function as the UK's technical guardian for platform availability, incident management, and engineering health, including participation in on-call rotations.
• Maintain rigorous code quality standards including testing, observability, and documentation.
• Partner with TechOps, Solution Architecture, and InfoSec teams to ensure platform reliability, security, and regulatory compliance, especially with regards to UK and EU data residency.
• Contribute feedback from UK operations back into the core product roadmap managed by the Australian team.

Who This Role is Not For

• Those expecting to control the core product roadmap (this is managed by the Australian team).
• Candidates seeking greenfield projects, as much of the work involves extending an existing platform safely.
• Applicants preferring fully specified work tickets rather than interpreting ambiguous partner requirements.
• Individuals wanting to move away from hands-on coding, since this role requires significant ongoing coding involvement.
• Professionals wanting to specialize in only one stack layer; this role involves full-stack work including infrastructure at times.
• Those viewing AI solely as autocomplete tools; this position demands deep agentic AI experience.
• People looking for purely advisory roles without responsibility for delivery outcomes.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• At least five years of experience developing and operating production software used by real users.
• Strong full-stack engineering skills with proficiency leaning towards either frontend or backend but competent in both.
• Ability to navigate and extend large, legacy codebases safely.
• Experience troubleshooting across system boundaries involving third-party APIs, payloads, and timeouts, with a solid grasp of contracts, retries, and idempotency.
• Effective at leading technical discussions and alignment with external engineering partners.
• Strong proficiency in Python and modern AWS services, including managing services during incidents.
• Expertise in modern frontend technologies such as TypeScript and component-based frameworks with an emphasis on user experience.
• Demonstrated daily use of AI agents in development workflows, with production agentic AI deployments and measurable outcomes.
• Proven end-to-end ownership of system design, development, deployment, operational responsibility, and iterative improvement.
• Experience in mentoring engineers, providing constructive feedback, and fostering growth.
• Familiarity with modern delivery techniques including trunk-based development and continuous integration/deployment.
• Excellent communication skills with a habit of producing clear design documents, code reviews, and incident reports.
• Good judgment regarding scope to prioritize impactful work incrementally.
• A proactive mindset toward identifying and resolving issues for continuous improvement.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Background in insurance, financial technology, or regulated financial sectors.
• Experience in partner-facing, solution-oriented, or integration engineering roles close to core product teams.
• Knowledge of configurable or no-code platforms such as embedded insurance or white-label sales flows.
• Hands-on experience with AI or ML systems in production environments.
• Working knowledge of cloud-native data warehousing platforms like Snowflake and data analytics or AI layers.
• Comfort working in globally distributed teams across multiple time zones.
• Understanding of AI safety methodologies including evaluations, red-teaming, guardrails, and human-in-the-loop protocols.
• Academic background in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Work Location and Culture

The role is situated in London, UK, with a hybrid work model requiring three days onsite weekly. Collaboration with the Sydney-based core engineering team involves documented decisions and regular early-morning calls. Candidates must have the legal right to work in the UK. Open values autonomy, flexibility, and a culture of openness, encouraging diverse candidates who seek impactful and innovative challenges in the insurance technology space.

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive salary with equity share options reflecting true market value and shared success.
• High levels of trust and autonomy to empower peak performance.
• Opportunities for career growth within the company.
• Flexible working arrangements prioritizing outcomes over desk time.
• Supportive parental leave policies for all parents.
• Annual personal development allowance for learning, wellness, and growth initiatives.

Diversity and Inclusion

Open is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering diversity and inclusion. The company ensures reasonable accommodations are available throughout the hiring process to enable fair participation for all candidates without requiring explanations.