Job Description
About FilmTailor AI:
We are a UK-based startup building the first AI-powered project management and design platform tailored for the Film, TV and Advertising industry. Our technology helps filmmakers streamline script analysis, costume design, mood board creation, and overall production planning with intelligent automation and collaboration tools. We are transforming film production with cutting-edge technology and are looking for an experienced and visionary Director of Technology to lead our technical strategy and oversee the development of our AI-powered platform, which will be launching in July 2025.
Role Overview:
As Director of Technology, you will be responsible for the overall technical direction and execution of the FilmTailor platform. This includes shaping the architectural vision, scaling engineering processes, integrating AI capabilities, ensuring high-performance infrastructure, and building a strong, agile engineering team.
But this is not a purely high-level role, we’re a startup, and we need someone who is not afraid to get their hands dirty, write code, debug problems, build prototypes, and push the product forward alongside the team. You’ll work closely with the founding team, product, and AI leads to build a platform that redefines how creative projects are produced, while preparing our tech for long-term scale, security, and commercial success.
Key Responsibilities:
Technical Vision & Strategy
- Define and execute the technical roadmap in alignment with the company’s product and business goals
- Evaluate and implement emerging technologies relevant to AI, automation, and collaborative platforms
- Champion clean, scalable architecture and ensure technical decisions support long-term product agility
AI Integration Leadership
- Lead the integration of LLMs and agentic AI into core workflows (script breakdown, asset generation, task orchestration)
- Collaborate with AI/ML teams to build real-time, context-aware agents tailored for film and creative use cases
Hands-On Engineering
- Write production-level code when needed to unblock the team or build rapid MVP features
- Lead by example with clean, maintainable, and efficient engineering practices
- Participate in code reviews, architectural decisions, and sprint planning
Team Building & Mentorship
- Grow, mentor and manage a distributed team of engineers across backend, frontend, DevOps and AI
- Establish clear engineering processes, sprint rituals, code standards and review protocols
System Architecture
- Own the high-level architecture across microservices, APIs, databases, and AI components
- Ensure systems are secure, performant and resilient, with modern CI/CD and observability tooling in place
Stakeholder Collaboration
- Act as the primary technical liaison between engineering, product, AI, and the founders
- Contribute to investor and client discussions where technical vision and innovation are key differentiators
Vendor & Stack Decisions
- Choose and manage third-party tools, cloud services, and data pipelines based on performance and cost-effectiveness
- Lead decisions around infrastructure scaling, DevSecOps, and platform resilience
What We’re Looking For:
- Proven Leadership: 5+ years in a senior engineering role with experience building and leading high-performing teams in startup or scale-up environments
- Hands-On Coding Ability: You are a builder at heart. You can dive into the codebase and ship features or prototypes independently
- AI-Forward Thinking: Understanding of agent-based systems, LLM pipelines, embeddings, and orchestration tools (LangChain, vector DBs, etc.)
- Architectural Strength: Experience architecting secure, scalable backend systems (.NET, Node, or similar) and deploying to Azure or equivalent
- Product-First Mindset: Comfortable balancing engineering purity with the speed and scrappiness of building MVPs in a fast-moving startup
- Strong Communication: Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with technical and non-technical stakeholders, and clearly articulate complex decisions
- Adaptability: Comfortable wearing multiple hats, rolling up sleeves, and operating with ambiguity and urgency
Why Join Us?
- Cutting-Edge Tech: Build next-gen AI tools that revolutionise an industry stuck in the past
- Founding Influence: You’ll be shaping the platform and team from the ground up
- Collaborative Team: Work with people who blend deep tech with deep love for film and creativity
- Growth & Ownership: Learn, lead, and grow with full autonomy and genuine equity upside
- Remote Flexibility: Work from anywhere and help us build the future of film
The Offer:
- Equity and a seat at the table — this is your company as much as ours
- 4-day work week (Monday–Thursday) forever
- Unlimited holidays
- Fully remote, forever
- Team outings and expenses paid
The Catch:
- This is a volunteer role until investment lands
- Requires a minimum commitment of 10–15 hours per week
- We are close to securing funding and once we do, you can transition to part-time, full-time, or contract work if you choose and receive a competitive salary.
