Founding Engineer - Ambient Care Startup

Stage: Pre-seed. Location: Cambridge/London, UK. Comp: Competitive + Equity

About Subtle

Most families find out something's wrong too late: a fall, a missed check-in, a change no one noticed until it became a crisis. We're building ambient sensing for the elderly and vulnerable at home, technology that quietly looks out for the people we love without asking them to wear anything or change how they live. We're early. We're validating with real customers, building the first hardware, and looking for the person who'll help turn this from an idea into a product families can trust with something this personal.

We are building this from scratch inside Founders Factory's studio, with a dedicated pre-seed investment, hands-on studio support across product, design, talent and growth, and a six-month build programme to get from concept to a fundable, in-market product. This venture has secured a major European technology partner. The founding CEO is already in place. We are now looking for the technical other half of the founding team.

The role

You'll be our first engineering hire, working directly with the founder(s) and carrying real authority over what we build and how. It's a hands-on role that spans hardware and software, and a leadership one too, since you'll grow the team that follows you.

Responsibilities

Own hardware validation and bench testing end to end, and lead our manufacturing path. Whether that ends up being an outsourced partner or in-house, you're the one validating the sensor platform yourself and making sure whatever we ship has been properly tested before it reaches someone's home. This is safety-relevant, so you'd rather catch a failure on the bench than have it happen in someone's home.

Build the software that turns sensor data into something useful. Detection logic, alerting, and the escalation decisions that sit behind them, tested and monitored with the same rigor as the hardware.

Navigate the regulatory and security requirements that come with this territory. Certification requirements for embedded systems (software and hardware), and data protection for Personally Identifiable Information (PII), from day one rather than retrofitted later.

Grow the team. As we scale past this hire, you'll hire, mentor and lead the engineers who join under you.

What we're looking for

Must have's

Early-stage hardware experience. You've taken a hardware product from 0 to 1 in a startup environment, and you're comfortable spanning embedded systems and software.

Experience using AI to accelerate how you work, across engineering, prototyping, and the day-to-day operations of running a startup.

Experience leading or building a small engineering team, or clearly ready to step into that.

A proactive, evidence-first way of working. You're comfortable with ambiguity, and comfortable being told (including by yourself) that a result doesn't hold up.

Experience with regulatory, security, or compliance requirements in health tech, medical devices, or another safety- and privacy-regulated space. You understand that building for vulnerable people and their data changes what "done" means.

Lead vendor and manufacturing negotiations, securing the right partners, terms, and production capabilities to bring the product to market.

Any direct experience taking a regulated product through certification (CE/UKCA, FDA, or equivalent) is considered a major plus.