Push the boundaries of what's possible with AI and SEO
Ellipsis is not your typical marketing agency. We're on a mission to be the best in the world at SEO content, and we've built our own cutting-edge AI solution to get us there.
Our AI system, FALCON AI, predicts content performance pre-publication and was featured in the New York Times (9 months before ChatGPT – this isn’t us hopping on a trend). But that was just the beginning.
We need a Technical Lead to help us take FALCON AI and all our AI/automation to the next level.
We need a Technical Lead to help us take FALCON AI and all our AI/automation to the next level.
🦅 Why this role is unique:
- Be the first in-house tech hire at a growth agency that's leading the way on AI
- Own and evolve the AI roadmap, from upgrading FALCON to building new products
- Work on pragmatic AI solutions with huge business impact, not just research
- Join a fast-growing startup where you can shape the future tech and team
- Huge scope for ownership, creativity, and doing things differently
🌟 If you're excited about AI's potential to transform work and create, this is the place to do it.
As our Technical Lead, you'll have the freedom, resources and collaborative team to dream big and make it happen. The responsibilities break down evenly between:
As our Technical Lead, you'll have the freedom, resources and collaborative team to dream big and make it happen. The responsibilities break down evenly between:
- Project management, and internal collaboration to understand requirements
- Maintenance and improvements to existing automations
- Building new solutions
Technical stack
- Database solutions such as Airtable, Baserow (self-hosted Airtable), and Firebase
- Serverless low/no-code platforms such as: AWS Lambda, Make, Zapier, and Pipedream, with code in Python or Node.js
- Generative AI APIs such as OpenAI/GTPT-4, Anthropic/Claude 3, and Llama 3 (including fine-tuning)
- AutoML APIs such as Hugging Face's AutoML
- Cloud service providers such as Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS
- SEO-specific APIs such as: Google Search Console, SEMrush, and Ahrefs
Our Founder, Alex, built our original automations in Zapier 5 years ago, and we've evolved from there to Make, and now Pipedream/Lambda.
The no-code simplicity shouldn't be mistaken for a lack of power: when FALCON AI was in the New York Times, some of it ran on Zapier. These tools allow for quickly and easily connecting APIs, and much of our automations do this. You'll need to be pragmatic about priorities to understand where solutions are good enough or need upgrades.
Going forwards
You can help us build the future. We have a number of projects on the horizon:
- Significantly upgrade the reliability, performance, and scalability of our existing solutions. For example: FALCON AI takes around 2 hours to make predictions for 1 keyword. We need to reduce this to under 30 minutes, and under 5 minutes as a stretch goal.
- Robust testing of mission-critical automations. We currently have no testing processes and new updates often cause problems that take a week to fix. You'll implement proper version control and testing for the mission-critical automations.
- Build stronger front-ends for our automations. Much of our existing automation lives within solutions like Airtable and Google Docs. These are OK interfaces but there's scope to make these significantly easier to use with proper front-ends.
- Play a key role in developing the FALCON AI SaaS, which to some extent solves SEO. We are working with external partners on a standalone SaaS version of FALCON AI, and you'll play a key role in the build of this.
- Upgrade the AI in FALCON AI. FALCON mixes off-the-shelf genAI with custom solutions. 2 key pieces are the prediction flow (the ML part) and fine-tuning LLMs for text generation. You'll own projects to upgrade both of these.
- Build new solutions, including with cutting-edge AI. We're building a new AI research product for internal use (with potential for a standalone SaaS). You'll take this forward to realize Alex's vision for what's possible.
- Build day-to-day automations to enhance productivity. The team will let you know how automation can make their work easier, and you'll need to prioritize, design, and build solutions which can help them. Your solutions will need to both solve the relevant problem and be easy to use to ensure adoption.
About you
We're looking for an experienced, versatile technical leader who can take our AI and automation solutions to the next level. The ideal candidate will have:
- 5+ years of experience in software development and architecture, with a strong track record of shipping successful products
- Deep expertise in at least one major programming language (Python preferred) and familiarity with our core tech stack:
- Serverless/low-code platforms (AWS Lambda, Pipedream, etc.)
- Generative AI and AutoML APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, etc.)
- Cloud service providers (GCP, AWS, Azure)
- Databases (Airtable, Firebase, etc.)
- Experience with SEO is a plus, but not required. Curiosity and ability to learn new concepts is a must.
- Strong project management skills and ability to collaborate cross-functionally to gather requirements and drive solutions
- Excellent communication skills and ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
- Passion for the potential of AI to transform knowledge work and desire to work on cutting-edge, impactful AI solutions
- Entrepreneurial mindset and comfort with ambiguity. You'll be our first in-house tech hire, so you need to be able to operate autonomously and shape the role.
Beyond the technical skills, we're looking for someone who is:
- Pragmatic and biased toward action. We need someone who can make smart tradeoffs between "perfect" and "good enough" to ship quickly and iterate.
- Endlessly curious. You love learning new things and diving deep into domains like SEO, AI, and the future of work.
- A creative problem-solver. You think outside the box and aren't afraid to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI.
- A strong communicator. You can collaborate effectively with the team, understand their needs, and explain/document your work.
- Able to accommodate a significant overlap with UK/EU hours (GMT/CET). Realistically, being based in the UK or EMEA is an advantage;we are however happy to consider candidates with significant overlap with European working hours such as the US East Coast.
If this sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you. This role is a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of AI and SEO, and shape the future of our technology.
Benefits
- This is a full-time, 100% remote role. Work from home, or the beach!
- Competitive, full-time salary with pension, benchmarked to UK rates and based on experience. The range for this role is: USD$65k-80k/year
- 28 days of paid holiday
- An additional 1 paid holiday day a year with each year of tenure, up to a maximum of 5 additional days
- 4-day work week, once a month (we’re currently mid-trial for this!)
- Genuinely flexible working
- Regular team retreats (~2 per year);we’ve recently been to Budapest, Madrid, and Edinburgh
- Time and budget for learning and development
- Enhanced maternity/paternity leave, and sick pay
- You’ll work for a sustainable, ethical company: we are aiming to become a B Corp by the end of 2024
The application process:
It’s important we find the best candidate for this position, and our selection process will reflect this.
Much of our company Wiki is externally accessible, and you’re encouraged to read through this before applying. We have a very useful guide to our interview process available here. This tells you what we’re looking for and reading this will significantly increase your chance of success!
We’ll review applications on a rolling basis and plan to start interviews after the closing date. There’s thus no benefit to rushing to apply: we will bias heavily towards your application’s answers rather than your CV, and we’d love for you to take your time.
We’re fortunate to receive a large volume of applications. You can make your application stand out by paying special attention to the main responsibilities of this role, and “how to apply”. If you think you’re a fit, or could be a fit – go for it!
We do great work for clients and are building an ethical business that lets everyone do their best work. If you think you could be the next person to join our team, please apply :)