Founding leadership opportunity

Head of Technical

Equity-only · Unfunded · Flexible commitment

No salary or fee budget is available. Equity, scope, commitment and engagement terms must be agreed before work begins. Future cash compensation is not guaranteed.

About Optimising Technologies

Optimising Technologies is a young robotics company founded by Mark Marney. We are building software to help robotics teams understand regulatory requirements, record how their robots operate and prepare information that insurers can use. You can try the NOMOS prototype today. Sentinel is in development, and Ledger is at the research and validation stage. You will work directly with Mark, our founder and CEO, to turn these early products into tools customers can use.

The opportunity

Take the software prototypes built by Mark and turn them into a maintainable platform that can support credible customer pilots. You will write and review code, make architecture decisions and build the engineering team. This is a role for a technical leader who still enjoys delivering software and debugging difficult integrations.

Reporting to Mark Marney, you will work alongside the insurance and regulation leads. Your immediate priority is a narrow, reproducible end-to-end workflow: collect useful robot evidence, preserve its context and make it available to assurance and insurance reviewers. Broader platform ambitions will follow demonstrated results.

What you will own

• Review the current prototypes, repositories and deployment approach. Establish a runnable baseline, identify what to retain or refactor, and agree a costed delivery roadmap with the founder.
• Design and build the shared architecture across NOMOS, Sentinel and Ledger: identifiers, schemas, APIs, data storage, permissions, provenance and reproducible outputs.
• Deliver robot data capture and replay, connecting available commands, controller outputs, telemetry, video and observed robot behaviour. Measure synchronisation, missing data and recording overhead.
• Build a repeatable simulation and test workflow, using tools such as ROS 2 and Isaac Sim where appropriate. Define normal and fault scenarios and distinguish simulated results from physical robot evidence.
• Turn domain requirements into usable software with the insurance and regulation leads. Implement approved analytical logic while preserving assumptions, versions and input traceability.
• Own engineering quality: code review, automated tests, deployment, observability, security, backup and recovery, documentation and operational costs.
• Recruit and guide robotics and platform/data engineers. Establish clear ownership and delivery habits, use contractors selectively and maintain enough hands-on involvement to unblock the team.

Your first 90 days

We will agree the scope around your available time and commitment.

Days 1–30: establish a reproducible development baseline, architecture decisions, major delivery risks and a prioritised backlog with measurable acceptance criteria.

Days 31–60: deliver one integrated evidence workflow for an agreed simulated robot task, including capture, replay and a reviewer-facing output.

Days 61–90: deliver a documented pilot release, repeatable fault scenarios, basic operational controls and an engineering hiring plan. Physical robot integration depends on access and agreed site arrangements.

Selection: an initial conversation, role discussion and references with your permission. We assess previous work; no unpaid production task is required. Please request any adjustments.

Essential experience

• Personal delivery of robotics, industrial or other connected software systems, including difficult integrations and operational ownership beyond a demonstration.
• Strong hands-on programming in Python and/or C++, with the ability to work across APIs, data pipelines and production software. You can show or explain recent engineering contributions.
• Practical experience with asynchronous sensor or machine data, recording and replay, time alignment or similarly demanding distributed integration problems.
• Ability to take a prototype towards reliable deployment through testing, observability, secure access and maintainable architecture.
• Experience guiding engineers, making pragmatic build decisions and translating customer or domain needs into small, testable increments.
• Willingness to be an individual contributor as well as a leader while the team is small. Clear written decisions and realistic estimates matter.

Useful, but not required

ROS 2, Isaac Sim or Gazebo; physical robot integration; edge systems; cloud platforms; TypeScript and modern web applications; time-series data; regulated or safety-related environments. We value depth and demonstrated learning over familiarity with every tool listed.

Scope and support

You own engineering delivery and the technical team. The founder supplies product direction; the insurance and regulation leads supply domain requirements and specialist review. Initial Sentinel work focuses on passive capture and evidence. Any safety intervention capability would require a separately defined and validated programme. This role does not require you to personally certify machinery or validate actuarial pricing assumptions.

Working arrangements and reward

Help build the company and the team from the start. We are looking for people who have delivered work they are proud of and want to take on a founding role. We welcome fractional involvement and will agree a realistic workload and time commitment together.

Optimising Technologies currently has no funding. This opportunity is equity-only at this stage: there is no salary or fee budget. We are open to fractional engagement and other mutually agreed arrangements. Equity percentage, vesting, responsibilities and time commitment will be agreed in writing before work begins. Future cash compensation depends on funding and a separate agreement; it is not guaranteed.

How to apply

Provide your CV and a cover letter answering the questions below, up to 400 words in total. Include your location, availability, preferred commitment and proposed engagement terms. Please avoid confidential material from another employer or client.

• Describe a connected or robotics software system you personally shipped. What did you build, and what changed between prototype and reliable use?
• Give an example of diagnosing a timing, missing-data or integration failure. How did you establish the cause and verify the fix?
• How would you scope the first 90 days of a small team connecting robot evidence to regulatory and insurance workflows? Include a public work sample if you have one; it is optional.