Overview

Software Engineer, Python role at Octopus Legacy. Join our growing engineering team to design, build, test, deploy, and maintain scalable systems, with opportunities to influence architecture on a greenfield project.

The Company

We’re Octopus Legacy: one of the fastest growing tech companies in the country, part of the UK’s most exciting and best-trusted group, and we have a mission to transform an established industry and support customers before and after death. We’re assembling a team of top performers to build with us.

The Role

As a Python Engineer, you will be a key member of our growing engineering team, responsible for designing, building, testing, deploying, and maintaining scalable systems. You’ll work on a greenfield project with the ability to influence architecture and development, contributing to back-end services and some front-end components. A key aspect is integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) into our products, so experience in this area is a plus. Our preference is for AWS (Lambda, S3, SNS, SQS, DynamoDB), but we will consider candidates with comparable experience on GCP or Azure. You will collaborate with the Engineering Manager and Lead Python Engineer and cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality solutions that align with business goals and enhance the customer experience. In a fast-paced startup environment, you will thrive on collaboration, flexibility, and quick iteration while balancing speed and quality.

Key Responsibilities

• Input into the design and development of scalable, cloud-native systems using modern architecture principles (microservices, serverless).
• Write maintainable, efficient, and clean Python code focusing on performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Build and maintain robust automated testing and CI/CD pipelines to support fast, frequent, and reliable deployments.
• Collaborate with product managers, designers, and other engineers to gather requirements, develop features, and address user needs.
• Demonstrate best practices in development, balancing rapid iteration with high-quality output.
• Participate in code reviews, architectural discussions, and continuous improvement initiatives to foster technical excellence.
• Champion a lean mindset and agile methodologies, contributing to sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives.
• Engage with product and users to understand needs and ensure solutions align with business goals.

Must Haves

• Proven track record in software development using Python or similar languages.
• Cloud experience, ideally with AWS (Lambda, S3, SNS, SQS, DynamoDB); comparable experience on GCP or Azure is valued.
• Hands-on experience with automated testing practices and CI/CD tools (CircleCI, Jenkins, GitHub Actions) or cloud-native solutions like AWS CodePipeline.
• Ability to thrive in a startup environment with change, iteration, and rapid development cycles.
• Strong understanding of RESTful APIs, including building, consuming, and optimising them.
• Experience or familiarity with OpenAI APIs or other LLMs and interest in integrating these technologies into products.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills across engineering and non-engineering teams.
• Experience in agile teams and familiarity with agile development practices.
• A passion for building products that deliver real value to users with a customer-centric approach.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with serverless frameworks (e.g., Serverless Framework, AWS SAM) or equivalent on GCP/Azure.
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code tools like AWS CloudFormation, Terraform, or equivalents in other clouds.
• Experience with containerisation (Docker) and orchestration tools (Kubernetes or ECS).
• Experience or interest in building AI agents (e.g., Langchain).
• Background in event-driven architecture.
• Understanding of Python web frameworks (Flask or FastAPI).
• Experience optimising applications for cloud performance, cost-efficiency, and scalability.
• Monitoring and logging experience (AWS CloudWatch, Datadog, ELK stack).
• Lean software development principles and a culture of delivering value quickly.
• Desire to mentor and share knowledge, contributing to continuous learning and growth.

Our Mission

In 2016 Sam’s mum died suddenly in a car accident. The experience that followed was overwhelming—navigating grief and financial stress. Octopus Legacy was created to make the experience of losing someone easier for those left behind, so they can focus on what matters. We have helped over 700,000 people plan for death and find support after a loss and are now the second largest estate planner in the UK. We transform cold processes into a human experience, helping customers share more than money and shape a legacy that connects them with loved ones.

Benefits

• Octopus share incentive scheme.
• Hybrid working (London Bridge).
• Flexible holiday plus an extra day off for your Birthday.
• Work from anywhere in the world for up to 4 weeks per year.
• Vitality Health & Life Insurance.
• Pension scheme.
• Enhanced parental leave.
• Free Will & LPAs + discounts on other Octopus services.
• Cycle to Work Scheme and access to the EV Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
• Octopus Giving: we match charitable fundraising up to £500.
• Octopus Springboard: support for employee entrepreneurship.
• Dog-friendly office.
• Breakfast, snacks and wellness activities.

We know that to be truly innovative, we need a diverse team. Octopus Legacy is committed to creating an inclusive environment and is an equal opportunity employer.