
Valarian · London
Valarian: Innovating for the new era of digital sovereignty Valarian Technologies is a dual-use technology company building critical tools to safeguard the futu...
Valarian: Innovating for the new era of digital sovereignty
Valarian Technologies is a dual-use technology company building critical tools to safeguard the future in an era of evolving global security challenges. We're rethinking security beyond traditional military domains, addressing asymmetric threats that impact our technological advantage, economic strength, and democratic institutions.
We build Acra – the platform foundation for everything we do as a dual-use technology company. The platform’s name, rooted in the Greek word for citadel (or, fortress), reflects the design and purpose of our infrastructure-agnostic secure enclaves: protecting critical data. Some of the government and commercial workflows include: increased operational resiliency for mission-critical systems and functions; enabling organizations to more quickly and widely adopt emerging technologies while ensuring the integrity of their intellectual property; information flow during disaster response scenarios, and zero-trust / least-privilege environments for M&A, attorney-client privileged communications, etc. And we’ve only scratched the surface.
At our core, we're driven by a shared mission and a belief in making a tangible impact on our world. Whether you join our London HQ or the wider global organisation, you’ll be a part of collaborative, high-performing teams, creating cutting-edge software, platforms, and infrastructure.
The Role
We’re looking for a Compliance Lead to take ownership of compliance at Valarian as we grow. This is a high-impact, hands-on role where you’ll be the go-to person for all things compliance, building structure where needed while keeping things pragmatic and lightweight.
You’ll manage and evolve our existing frameworks (e.g. Cyber Essentials, SOC 2), lead on planning and implementing our compliance roadmap, and help us meet the requirements needed to work with Enterprise and Government customers alike. You’ll work closely with leadership and product teams to ensure compliance supports how we build and inform secure development practices.
What you’ll do
Own day-to-day compliance across the business, ensuring our existing frameworks (CE/CE+, SOC 2) are maintained without adding unnecessary overhead
Lead the implementation of ISO 27001 from the ground up, shaping how it fits a small, fast-moving team
Identify and implement additional frameworks and controls required for UK government work
Plan and run audits end-to-end, acting as the primary point of contact for external auditors
Build and maintain a clear, pragmatic compliance roadmap aligned with company goals and customer needs
Work directly with founders and leadership to prioritise compliance initiatives and manage risk
Partner with product and engineering to embed compliance and security into product design early, not retrofitted later
Create and maintain lean, effective policies and documentation that are actually used by the team
Stay on top of regulatory changes and translate them into simple, actionable steps for the business
Act as an internal advisor, helping the team understand what matters (and what doesn’t) when it comes to compliance
What you’ll bring
Experience owning or leading compliance in a small company or early-stage environment
Strong knowledge of SOC 2 and ISO 27001, with hands-on implementation experience (especially building from scratch)
Familiarity with compliance requirements for UK government or regulated industries
Experience running audits and working directly with auditors without heavy external support
Comfort operating as a leader, able to balance strategy with doing the work yourself
A pragmatic, low-bureaucracy approach to compliance that fits a startup environment
Ability to work closely with technical teams and influence product decisions
Clear, concise communication, able to turn complex requirements into simple guidance
Benefits
Our benefits are designed to ensure our employees feel taken care of and are proud to be a part of the Valarian team. We are committed to consistently enhancing our benefit package, taking into account the overall well-being and needs of our teammates. Here are the key benefits accessible to all employees at Valarian Technologies:
Equity – because you have the right to own what you’re building
A competitive salary – because we value your unique skills
Employer pension contributions – because you deserve a secure future
Hybrid work setup – because everyone has different needs
Rewarding company retreats and meetups that respect your work/life balance – because we love getting to know each other!
Life at Valarian
Our culture is built on inclusivity, compassion and flexibility – we want everyone to be empowered to achieve their goals at Valarian.
The world is changing, and so is our way of working. If you want to join us in the London office – it’s quite nice! – you’re welcome to; and if you’d prefer to work remotely, that’s fine too.
And as we build elegant solutions to simplify the complexities of business collaboration, we also simplify work life: contribute wherever and whenever allows you to be your best self. We trust each other to consistently raise the bar, and we challenge each other to continually reach new heights.
Working at CreateFuture CreateFuture is an AI-native consulting partner where people do work that matters and are supported to do it well. We work alongside organisations such as PayPal, adidas, NatWest, FanDuel and Money Saving Expert, building digital products and services that make a difference while always putting people first. We’re a team of creators. We write code, shape delivery, build go-to-market strategies, develop AI solutions and create the practices that support our people. We work side by side with our clients, challenging what’s not working and helping them to build the future. Our commitment to craft, quality, and culture has helped us scale to over 600 people in just a few years. Our UK Benefits * 35 days leave (including bank holidays). * Private medical insurance. * Enhanced parental and adoption leave. * Financial coaching + 5% pension match. * 40 hours of paid learning and development. View our full list of UK benefits. CreateFuture is a Great Place to Work-Certified™ company and has won Best Workplaces UK multiple years in a row. Join us on our journey. Let’s create tomorrow, together, today. About the role and team: At CreateFuture, our Lead Engineer - Cloud plays a pivotal role in supporting the success of our Cloud engineers, our clients, and internal projects. Working closely with clients, you are responsible for the successful delivery of client and internal projects by building professional relationships with key client stakeholders, challenging where appropriate. Use your technical expertise to provide best practice advice and processes within your project team and the wider capability. As our client demands expand from traditional cloud migrations to AI enablement and platform engineering, you will lead the charge in building autonomous platforms, managing AI lifecycles, and enforcing strict cost governance across cloud estates. You are seen as a leader internally and externally, through your technical expertise, guidance, and professionalism, both on and off a client. Alongside delivering for your customers, you will also support and mentor a team of cloud engineers to encourage their growth. You will be setting the technical direction of the team alongside Cloud Leads and Senior Engineers. Key responsibilities: CONSULTANCY & ADVISORY * Growth Mindset: Apply a growth mindset to identify new revenue opportunities on client accounts, working alongside the commercial team to successfully land additional work. * Pre-Sales Contribution: Lead and contribute to pre-sales activities, RFPs, and BIDs, accounting for up to 5% to 10% of the role. Engage with the commercial team to drive high-value Cloud and Data advisory roles. * Ambassadorial Presence: Act as an ambassador for CreateFuture in the public space, attending events, speaking, blogging, or leveraging social media to support the growth of the Cloud capability. * Hands-on: you are an experienced engineer and can be active with the cloud platform tools, software development and writing efficient code for clients. TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP & PLATFORM SUPPORT * Technical Direction: Take responsibility for the technical direction and delivery of single or multiple client and internal project teams, acting as either a technical lead or a solo contributor. * AI-Native Infrastructure: Architect and implement the core engineering infrastructure required to run AI workloads reliably, moving client architectures from static data lakes to dynamic Vector Databases and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures. * Agentic Development: Build production-grade Agentic Workflows and custom AI agents, utilising advanced toolsets to bridge the widening market implementation gap. * Setting Development Best Practices: Define, promote, and establish best practice tools, security approaches, and common service patterns across the entire CreateFuture organisation. Ensure Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the organisational default and challenge inefficient legacy processes. * FinOps & Governance: Enforce strict automated security and cost controls, real-time cost-anomaly detection, and cost estimation into the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) as a standard. Understanding of OpenTelemetry or other telemetry approaches. * Internal Platform Support: Assist the Capability Lead and architects in defining and delivering an internal collection of reusable components, reference architectures, and Proof of Concepts (PoCs). Supporting the internal IT function in helping other parts of the business use Cloud services. LEADING & MENTORING * Culture & Collaboration: Lead by example, creating a culture of open, honest feedback, collaboration, ownership, and accountability. * People Development: Create a psychologically safe environment for the team that enables them to grow by supporting their development journeys and career aspirations. * Capability Growth: Work alongside the Capability Lead and Director of Cloud and Data to identify missing or inconsistent skills within the department, supporting team members through tiered certification journeys. * Recruitment: Collaborate with Talent Acquisition through the recruitment process, including conducting interviews, candidate debriefs, and strategic decision-making to attract top talent. Skills & Experience CORE TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES Candidates must demonstrate a hybrid skillset, balancing Software Engineering (30%), Platform/SRE (40%), and Data Engineering (30%), with a core focus on Security, Governance, and Cost Management. * Cloud & Infrastructure (40%): Advanced Infrastructure as Code (IaC) via Terraform, advanced Kubernetes administration (clusters, nodes, pods), hardcore networking (VPC peering, Service Mesh, Zero Trust security), and solution architecture experience, with a cost-optimisation mindset. * Software Engineering, Agentic & AI Development (30%): Solid software engineer principles (pipelines, toolsets, testing, linting, vulnerability scanning, etc.) Production-level experience with tools such as Amazon Bedrock, AWS AgentCore, Azure AI Studio, LangChain, and writing automation scripts or custom AI agents using node or python. * Data Engineering (30%): Experience deploying and maintaining data orchestration toolsets (e.g., dbt, Apache Airflow), ETL/ELT methodologies, real-time streaming (e.g., AWS Kinesis, Apache Kafka), Vector databases, and RAG architectures. * Observability & FinOps: Experience implementing modern observability tooling (OpenTelemetry) alongside automated cost-control systems (such as Karpenter, Infracost, OpenCost, or Cloud Custodian). DOMAIN & SECTOR EXPERIENCE * Regulated Industries: Experience working in highly regulated sectors such as Financial Services or iGaming is helpful, demonstrating an understanding of strict compliance, data privacy risks, and governance guardrails. * Consulting: Proven background in a client-facing consulting capacity, managing stakeholders, handling commercial realities, and meeting strict SLAs, timescales, and budgets. PREFERRED KNOWLEDGE-LEVEL & CERTIFICATIONS * Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA). * Multiple professional-level certifications (AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional or Azure Architect AZ-305.) * Beneficial for AWS GenAI Developer Professional, AWS ML Engineer Associate, or Azure AI Engineer Associate. * FinOps Certified Practitioner (FOCP). WHAT WE’LL OFFER YOU: We trust people to do their best work. That means flexibility over rigid rules, impact over activity, and real investment in your growth both professionally and personally. You’ll be part of a supportive, and friendly culture, surrounded by smart, curious people who care deeply about what they do. We offer flexible working, including hybrid and remote options. Our office hubs are located in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, London and Bulgaria, with occasional travel to client sites or CreateFuture offices when needed. We trust you to manage your time balancing collaboration with client time and focused work. What matters is the impact you have, not how busy you look. OUR HIRING PROCESS We try to keep our hiring process clear, fair and respectful of your time. We aim to get back to everyone who applies and we will be upfront about where you are in the process. It usually looks like this: * Call with our Talent Acquisition Team * Role specific capability interview Depending on the role, we might also ask you to do a short presentation, a practical or technical task or have a values focused conversation. We will explain what is involved before anything happens. INCLUSION AT CREATEFUTURE We believe diverse teams build better workplaces and better products. We want CreateFuture to be a place where people feel able to be themselves and do their best work. If you need any adjustments or support during the application process, just. We will do what we can to help. We look forward to your application!
Retire the ERP. Light exists to replace factory-era ERPs with software that feels alive. Our Smart Financial Platform gives modern, global companies superpowers—automated accounting, real-time reporting, and financial flows that move at the speed of the business. We build with our customers, ship fast, and obsess over craft. In a short time, Light has gone from idea to the operating core for leading companies like Lovable, Legora, and Keyshot. People don’t just use Light—they enjoy it. We’re an early team defining a new software category. Think engineers who love debits and credits, designers who care about reconciliation states, and operators who treat finance as a product. If you’re excited to modernize how the world runs money—one workflow at a time—you’re in the right place. Backed by world-class investors and advised by industry titans, we’re building category-defining products with the freedom to ship ambitiously and own outcomes. Come help us make Light the global default for next-gen finance. THE ROLE This is a foundational hire on Light's Finance & Operations team. You will work directly with the Head of Finance & Operations across Finance, Legal & Compliance, People Operations, and General Operations providing execution-layer support across all of them. The timing matters. Light is at the stage where the foundational processes are being built for the first time. Whoever is in this role will have a hand in designing how things work, not just running what already exists. That is a rare thing to be part of early in a career, and the experience compounds fast. This is not a narrow role. On any given week you might be creating a new FinOps flow for vendor contracts tracking, helping set up a new equity structure or onboarding process, or mapping a compliance deadline across four jurisdictions. The common thread is precision, ownership, and the ability to move fast without losing detail. We are deliberately looking for someone early in their career. Not as a cost decision, as a capability decision. The best person for this role thinks natively in modern tools and AI workflows, not in the processes those tools are replacing. If you have spent years optimising legacy ways of working, this is probably not the right fit. If you instinctively reach for automation before repetition, it might be exactly right. This role can also be offered as a 3 - 6 month internship with an option to convert to a full-time role. RESPONSIBILITIES * Work across finance operations, legal & compliance, people and general operations as an execution layer directly supporting the Head of Finance & Operations * Support finance operations and processes: vendor and customer tracking, finance flows across tools etc. * Support people operations from onboarding, HR data, contracting etc. * Manage the company's legal document library, contract administration, and entity-level filing obligations, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks * Identify where recurring manual work can be automated or standardised, and build the AI-based solution rather than waiting for someone else to do so WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR * 1-3 years of experience in a fast-paced environment: MBB consulting, investment banking, a high-growth startup, or a similarly demanding setting * Degree in business, economics, finance, accounting, or a related field with demonstrable academic strength * Solid accounting fundamentals and experience in financial modelling preferred - you understand how the numbers work and can build structured analysis in Excel * Exceptional attention to detail and genuine ownership, tasks get closed, not handed back * Genuinely AI-native, you use AI tools daily, think in agents and automation first, and find manual repetitive workflows frustrating rather than comfortable. This is a hard filter, not a nice-to-have * A demonstrated interest in building, process improvements, internal tools, or workflow automation WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT This is not a role for someone looking for a defined lane and a steady queue of tasks. You will be working across multiple functions simultaneously, often without a playbook, reporting directly to someone who moves fast and expects the same. The breadth is a feature, not a bug, it requires genuine versatility and the confidence to navigate ambiguity without handholding. THE GOOD STUFF In addition to being part of a great team and working in a really fun and innovative environment, we offer: 💸 Competitive salary + potential stock options 🏝 25 days of annual leave + public holidays 🥳 Regular socials and company Starsite off-sites 🚀 A huge opportunity for career growth as you will help shape a market-defining product THE FAMOUS LAST WORDS Working at Light means you are embarking on an exciting journey to reshape the future of multinational financial operations. Our cheat-code is that we have built something like this before and are now doing it again, only better. Our goal is to make global finance effortless and empower companies to make informed decisions. Join the rocket ship while it is taking off 🚀
Head of Engineering - Developer Experience & Platform Awin is seeking an exceptional engineering leader to shape the future of how our engineers build, ship, and operate software at scale. As Head of Engineering – Developer Experience & Platform, you will own the end-to-end developer experience strategy, drive the adoption of AI-native engineering practices, modernise our cloud platform, and lead the teams and tooling that enable Awin's engineering organisation to work at its best. This is a high-impact leadership role at the intersection of engineering excellence, platform strategy, and AI innovation. You will define and deliver the developer experience (DevEx) vision for Awin, ensuring our engineers have the tools, environments, processes, and culture to be highly productive and deeply satisfied in their work. You will own our platform strategy on AWS, lead FinOps practices, and spearhead the organisation-wide rollout of AI-augmented and agentic development workflows. You will act as a trusted internal champion for engineers – gathering data-driven insight, translating it into organisation-wide improvements, and working hand-in-hand with engineering leadership, product, and stakeholders to make change happen and allow our Product teams to deliver value to our customers at scale. The right candidate has strong hands-on experience with modern AI-driven software development and building developer-centric cloud platforms at scale. This is a senior but hands-on role within the Engineering organisation, reporting to the Director of Engineering. Key Tasks & Responsibilities Developer Experience Strategy & Tooling * Own and evolve Awin's Developer Experience programme – defining the vision, strategy, and roadmap for DevEx improvement across the engineering organisation * Identify friction points, productivity blockers, and systemic inefficiencies through data, qualitative research, and direct engagement with engineering teams, other Heads of Engineering or Engineering Managers * Drive organisation-wide improvements to technology, tooling, and engineering processes, building consensus and alignment with key stakeholders across product, engineering, security, and operations. * Establish and track DevEx metrics and KPIs (e.g. DORA metrics, developer satisfaction scores), using them to demonstrate impact and guide investment decisions. * Own the developer tools portfolio and associated budgets – evaluating, procuring, and retiring tools to ensure engineers have best-in-class tooling without unnecessary cost or complexity. * Lead strategic assessment and rollout of new developer tooling, including CI/CD platforms, IDE capabilities, code quality and security tools. AI-Native Development & Agentic Workflows * Lead Awin's AI engineering rollout – defining the strategy for AI-native software development, establishing standards, and scaling adoption across the engineering organisation. * Evaluate and implement AI-augmented development tools including AI coding assistants, agentic development environments, automated code review, test generation, and intelligent CI/CD pipelines. * Champion modern AI-native software development best practices and drive continuous evaluation of the rapidly evolving AI tooling landscape. * Design and deliver enablement programmes – training, communities of practice, documentation, and hands-on workshops – to accelerate AI fluency and confidence across engineering teams. * Measure and report on the impact of AI adoption on developer productivity, code quality, and time-to-market. Cloud Platform Optimisation * Lead the strategy and execution of cloud platform standardisation across Awin's AWS estate, establishing golden paths, reference architectures, and platform abstractions that improve developer experience and reduce cognitive load. * Drive cloud migration efforts, infrastructure modernisation initiatives, partnering with Product teams to improve reliability, scalability, observability, and security posture (including platform-wide Incident Management, SRE * Own AWS cost management and FinOps practices – establishing budgeting frameworks, implementing cost allocation and tagging strategies, identifying and acting on optimisation opportunities, and providing transparent reporting to leadership. * Build out internal developer platform capabilities to abstract cloud complexity and accelerate developer self-service. * Ensure cloud platform decisions are made with developer experience as a primary consideration alongside cost efficiency, security, and scalability. Leadership & Organisational Impact * Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team spanning developer experience, platform engineering, and tooling functions. * Act as a collaborative, influential engineering leader, shaping Awin's technical culture, engineering standards, and ways of working. * Contribute to the engineering leadership team, participating in strategic planning, headcount discussions, and broader organisational design. Skills & Experience * Significant experience in and passion for software engineering, with hands-on coding background in one or more major languages (e.g. Java, TypeScript). * Strong understanding of AI-native software development – including AI coding assistants (e.g. Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot), agentic development workflows, and LLM-integrated toolchains. * Proven leadership experience in developer experience, platform engineering, developer productivity, or a related engineering leadership role within a mid-to-large scale technology organisation. * Deep understanding of the software development lifecycle, engineering best practices, and what makes engineering teams highly productive. * Demonstrable experience leading and improving CI/CD practices, deployment pipelines, and developer tooling ecosystems. * Strong background in AWS – comfortable with infrastructure-as-code (e.g. Terraform), container platforms, serverless patterns, and cloud-native architectures. * Experience with FinOps or cloud cost management, including budgeting, tagging strategies, and cost optimisation at scale. * Track record of successfully delivering organisation-wide change programmes in collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders. * Experience designing and using developer experience metrics frameworks (e.g. DORA, SPACE, DX Core 4) to measure and improve developer productivity. * Demonstrated ability to lead, inspire, and grow engineering teams in a fast-paced, distributed environment. * Strong commercial awareness – experience managing budgets, building business cases, and making tool and investment decisions with clear ROI thinking. * Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on delivery; comfortable operating from vision through to execution. * Experience working in global, distributed engineering organisations across multiple time zones and cultures. Our Offer * Flexi-Week: We prioritise your mental health and wellbeing by offering you a four-day Flexi-Week (with one lighter or completely disconnected day per week) at full pay, with no reduction to your annual holiday allowance. * Flexi-office: We offer an international culture and flexibility through our hybrid/remote working scheme which is designed to foster a culture of mutual trust and working flexibility. * Work Expense Contribution & Remote Working Furniture: You will receive a monthly allowance to cover part of your running costs, as well as a furniture package to support you in setting up a comfortable workspace when working from home. * Health and Wellbeing: With our support and access to various initiatives and sports offers, you can focus on your mental and physical wellbeing. * Development: We’ve built our extensive training suite, Awin Academy, to cover a wide range of skills that support your professional and personal growth, with trainings conveniently packaged to help your overall development. * Appreciation: Thank and reward colleagues by sending them a voucher through our peer-to-peer recognition programme. We are hiring in multiple countries for this role. Additional benefits, including health and wellbeing offerings, will be discussed during the initial interview. Established in 2000, Awin is proud of our dynamic, social and inclusive culture. Like all businesses, we’ve had to adapt and nurture our culture in a virtual environment. Our virtual ‘Life @ Awin’ hub brings our colleagues from across the globe together for various social activities. Diversity & Inclusion are paramount to us, and we proudly pursue and hire diverse team members. We champion uniqueness and authenticity; this is who we are at our core. Our network of affiliate partnerships are diverse and transparent, as are the employees powering our vision to build the world’s leading open partner ecosystem. We welcome all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. If you need support at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know. Awin is part of the Axel Springer group. Learn more at axelspringer.com/en/, and explore the Axel Springer Essentials here: axelspringer.com/en/inside/the-essentials-what-we-have-adapted-and-why Apply now to begin the next stage of your career at a progressive company that supports both your professional and personal development. #LI-RS1