Staff Engineer, Software Architect

Staff Engineer

We're looking for a Staff Engineer to set the technical direction for Hesta's platform as we scale.

Hesta is creating a new benchmark in women’s health, delivering exceptional care at every life stage. As we advance towards this goal, we are committed to closing the women’s health gap, beginning with pregnancy and postnatal as our initial focus. 75 million years of women’s lives are lost every year due to poor health or early death. This gap limits potential, drives inequality, and reflects a healthcare system that wasn’t built for women.

We are changing that.

We're looking for a Staff Engineer to set the technical direction for Hesta's platform. This is a role for a senior technologist who can design scalable systems and shape architecture at a company level as we grow.

You’ll balance hands‑on coding with driving initiatives that cut across the whole platform - from clinical data systems to AI-enabled care features. You’ll work closely with our founders, product and clinical teams, and you’ll have real influence over how Hesta scales as we grow from pre‑seed into our next phase.

We’re applying the latest in AI to build something that genuinely changes lives for women and families. We want to make this the best it can possibly be, and to do that we need passionate, motivated engineers who care about the craft as much as the mission. You’ll be working alongside people who’ve done this before across both tech and healthcare, and who are committed to getting it right.

If you want your work to truly matter, come build with us.

Architect and lead design for high-scale, multi‑tenant systems that handle sensitive clinical data

Set standards for engineering quality, testing, security and reliability across the platform

Own cross‑cutting technical initiatives that span multiple areas of the product

Build tools, frameworks and abstractions that improve developer velocity

Partner with founders and the wider team to align engineering execution with company strategy

Design and maintain data‑compliant systems with privacy, security and regulatory standards embedded by default (UK GDPR, NHS DSPT, MHRA guidance)

Champion clinical‑grade reliability, data integrity and patient trust in everything you build

7+ years of software engineering experience
, with 3+ years as a technical lead or staff‑level engineer

Proven success scaling systems to meet growing demand, ideally in a regulated or data‑sensitive environment

Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence technical direction without formal authority

Comfortable owning systems
:
You’re happy taking responsibility for a codebase and keeping it healthy - from shipping features to debugging issues.

Specific requirements
:

Backend experience with Node.js and/or Python (FastAPI, Flask)

Experience with front end frameworks (React, Next.js, Typescript). Exposure to cross platform frameworks a plus (e.g. React Native).

Experience deploying and operating systems on at least one major cloud platform (AWS, GCP, or Azure), with containerisation (Docker; Kubernetes a bonus)

You’ve built or worked on systems where data protection, access control, and auditability matter

Product‑minded:
You think in terms of user outcomes and trade‑offs, not just technical solutions. You care deeply about the user and collaborate closely with design and product

Healthcare fluent:
You understand (or are eager to learn) the constraints of clinical workflows, data privacy (e.g. UK GDPR, NHS standards), and safety

AI‑curious:
You’re excited about the opportunities that AI brings, and want a chance to move up the curve quickly and impactfully. You have experience working with LLMs such as Claude or similar, including…