Founding Engineer (AI & Product) at SplitStay, London/Remote, £Contract Rate

Build the AI Coordination Layer for Group Travel

📍 London, United Kingdom (Hybrid)

Remote across the UK & Europe considered for exceptional candidates.

Full-time | Contract | Founding Team

The opportunity

Every year, millions of people travel with friends to attend HYROX races, marathons, festivals, conferences and other shared experiences.

Finding accommodation isn't the difficult part.

Getting the group to agree is.

Group chats become chaotic. Budgets differ. Arrival dates change. Room preferences conflict. Someone always ends up organizing everything.

Existing travel platforms optimize booking.

We're building the AI layer that optimizes coordination before booking.

SplitStay helps groups collect preferences, surface trade-offs, reach consensus faster and seamlessly continue to their preferred booking platform.

We believe this coordination layer will become a fundamental part of how people organize group travel.

We're looking for an exceptional founding engineer to help build it.

Why join now?

We're at one of the most exciting stages of the company.

• Live product.
• Real users.
• Clear product-market hypothesis.
• Preparing our next major growth phase.
• Working directly with the founder.
• Small team.
• High ownership.
• Fast decisions.
• Zero bureaucracy.

This is a chance to shape not only the product, but also the engineering culture and long-term technical direction of the company.

For the right person, this role can naturally evolve into long-term technical leadership as SplitStay grows.

What you'll build

You'll work on some of the hardest and most interesting problems in modern consumer AI.

Including:

• AI-powered group coordination
• Multi-user decision-making systems
• WhatsApp conversational experiences
• LLM agent orchestration
• Preference collection
• Conflict detection
• Consensus generation
• Real-time collaboration
• Booking handoff architecture
• Secure, scalable backend systems

You'll help define how groups make travel decisions, not simply build another booking platform.

What you'll own

You'll have significant ownership from day one.

Responsibilities include:

• Designing product architecture
• Building production-ready AI workflows
• Shipping customer-facing features end-to-end
• Improving engineering velocity
• Making technical trade-offs
• Helping shape long-term architecture
• Working directly with the founder on product strategy

You'll work directly with the founder and collaborate closely with Product and Design to solve real user problems.

Our technology

Current stack includes:

• TypeScript
• SolidJS
• Supabase
• PostgreSQL
• Claude
• Anthropic Tool Calling
• Twilio WhatsApp API
• Tailwind CSS
• Vercel
• GitHub Actions
• Terraform

Experience with every technology isn't required.

Strong engineering fundamentals matter more than matching every framework.

We're looking for someone who

• Loves building products from zero to one.
• Enjoys difficult technical problems.
• Thinks like both an engineer and a product builder.
• Moves quickly while maintaining quality.
• Takes ownership.
• Communicates clearly.
• Challenges assumptions with good reasoning.
• Is excited by AI's practical applications.
• Wants meaningful impact rather than simply another engineering role.

Must-have experience

• Strong TypeScript
• Modern frontend development
• Backend architecture
• PostgreSQL
• Cloud deployment
• API design
• Git
• Production software

Nice to have

• Supabase
• AI agents
• Claude
• OpenAI
• Tool calling
• Prompt engineering
• Twilio
• Marketplace products
• Consumer software
• Travel technology
• Early-stage startup experience

What success looks like after six months

You'll have helped us:

• Launch our Coordination Intelligence Engine.
• Scale our AI-powered WhatsApp experience.
• Ship multiple production features.
• Improve platform architecture.
• Increase engineering velocity.
• Build the technical foundations for rapid growth.

Why SplitStay?

We're not trying to build another booking website.

We're building the coordination layer that sits before booking.

If successful, millions of group travel decisions could become dramatically easier.

If you're excited by difficult engineering challenges, meaningful ownership and building something from the ground up, we'd love to hear from you.

Our hiring process

We believe the best way to evaluate fit is by building together. Successful candidates will typically begin with a short collaboration under our Contributor Agreement. If both sides see a strong long-term fit, there is a clear opportunity to grow into a founding engineering or technical leadership role.

Learn More About SplitStay

• Website: www.SplitStay.travel
• Pitch Deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FTsHBfOq5j-f1qnjWUYUA9BfQ1i5ovWi4j4-xLCCalo/edit?uspsharing
• SplitStay Market Thesis: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17GDnV_6SRwfzxrDUP9diXYd4mhNb5jHZ/view?uspsharing
• Hyrox Partnership Deck: https://splitstay.netlify.app/hyrox-deck-v2

If this excites you...

• Send a connection request to the founder (Ruben Vanhees)
• After the connection has been accepted, send a short note explaining your interest in SplitStay and why you believe you would be a strong fit.