Software Engineer (Cryptic Crosswords)
Unlikely in London
William is best known for his key role in the creation of Alexa following the acquisition by Amazon of his first start-up, the voice assistant company Evi. Unlikely AI is his next start-up with ambitions to exceed that earlier success. The company has just raised a very large ($20m ) seed round reflecting the excitement investors have in the technology, team and potential of the business. We are looking to build a world-class technology team to realise the extraordinary possibilities of what we are doing.
This is a key opportunity to join us and make a significant impact on the fortunes of the business and help define the company, culture, product and software engineering practices. In this role, you’ll be working on our state of the art cryptic crossword solving AI, Ross (as demonstrated in our Crossword Genius app.) Your work will include expanding Ross’capabilities in solving and explaining even the most difficult cryptic crossword clues.
Please see our Company Principles to understand the core things we value – in particular we are looking for exceptional people who are willing to tackle some of the most difficult technical problems there are, in order to create something extraordinary with huge impact.
We are building an extremely exciting AI platform and associated applications using novel and potentially revolutionary techniques. For this particular role you will be excited by the prospect of designing a cryptic crossword solver to beat the very best human solvers. You should be familiar with our Crossword Genius app containing an AI, Ross, who can solve and explain even the most difficult cryptic crossword clues.
Required:
Exceptional coding ability
Degree within a related field, Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Maths or equivalent
2+ years of experience of commercial software engineering (ideally including proficiency in C++).
Experience, knowledge and passion for solving cryptic crosswords coupled with an enthusiasm for solving them
programmatically.
Understanding of modern best practices for agile software development
Desirable but not required:
4+ years of experience with C++
Experience of AWS and building scalable systems within it
Understanding of the state-of-the-art in Artificial Intelligence
Understanding of modern machine-learning techniques
Compensation:
This will be through salary and generous share options. The company has a tax-efficient EMI share option scheme set up (not available to larger companies) which allows us to provide real exposure to the success of the company without taxes being due when they are paid.
Location:
We are based in London. After two years of operating completely remotely during COVID we are now operating a hybrid regime where we have a small office near Holborn tube station which is available to anyone who wants to work there. We also have occasional team days where everyone meets face to face and days where people work heads down from home, communicating with colleagues using Slack and Zoom.