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Whitespace Careers

At Whitespace, we build intelligent systems that people can trust- AI and digital platforms that power defence, government, and leading commercial organisations. Our work sits at the edge of what’s possible, where technology meets security and real-world impact.
<br><br>We’re engineers, designers, and problem-solvers who care about clarity, precision, and purpose. Our teams create technology that helps national programmes run smarter and global businesses act faster.

We move quickly, cut through noise, and give talented people the space to build things that matter. <br><br>Whether it’s a secure AI platform for government or automation for a global enterprise, the challenge is the same: make complex systems simple, reliable, and human to use.<br><br>If you want your work to count - join us.

Why We're Here

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<h2><strong>Backend Tech Lead&nbsp;</strong><br>Belfast, UK · Hybrid · Full-time</h2>
<h3>About Whitespace</h3>
<div>Whitespace leads in creating intelligent interfaces for enterprises, empowering them to harness the full potential of AI and human collaboration.</div>
<h2>Role Summary</h2>
<p>We are seeking a backend tech lead to join our growing backend team in building scalable, AI-powered platforms and services. You will work alongside engineers to design and deliver APIs, microservices, and backend systems that power our products and AI/agent integrations. This is a great opportunity for an experienced team lead who is looking to lead a team delivering at pace.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Requirements</h3>
<h4>Backend Development</h4>
<p>Drive the design, development, and maintenance of robust, scalable, and highly-available backend services and APIs. Set and enforce the gold standard for code quality and engineering excellence, ensuring all delivered code is clean, well-tested (unit and integration), and thoroughly documented. Contribute to the development of microservices that support multiple products, platforms, and AI/agent-powered interfaces.</p>
<h4>Cloud Infrastructure</h4>
<div>Work with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Kubernetes (GKE) to deploy and manage services. Contribute to CI/CD pipelines and follow container orchestration best practices.<br>Use observability tooling (logging, metrics, tracing) to monitor and troubleshoot services.</div>
<h4>Collaboration</h4>
<p>Drive cross-functional collaboration with product management, designers and development teams to define, plan, and deliver end-to-end product features. Lead and actively contribute to technical discussions, architecture reviews, and code reviews, ensuring technical alignment and the highest standards of code quality and system design across the team's output.</p>
<div><strong>Management Experience</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Lead, mentor, and motivate a team of backend engineers, fostering a collaborative and high-performing environment. Conduct regular one-on-one meetings, performance reviews, and career development discussions. Drive technical best practices within the team, ensuring high standards of code quality, testing, and system design are consistently met. Work closely with product managers and other stakeholders to align technical strategy with business objectives and ensure timely delivery of features.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Reliability &amp; Quality</strong></div>
<div><br>Beyond writing comprehensive unit and integration tests, you will support the implementation of advanced testing practices (e.g., end-to-end, load, chaos engineering) and enforce a culture of ownership over code quality and stability within the team. You will proactively establish and audit adherence to established security and reliability patterns, identifying systemic issues and championing large-scale improvements.<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>Required Skills &amp; Knowledge</strong></div>
<div><br>Backend Development: Extensive experience with Node.js and JavaScript/TypeScript; a strong understanding of async patterns and RESTful API design.<br>Cloud Exposure: Extensive hands-on experience with cloud platforms (GCP preferred) and containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes).<br>Databases: Experience working with relational (PostgreSQL) and/or NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis, Firestore) databases.<br>Version Control: Strong experience with Git-based workflows and collaborative development practices.<br>Agile Methodologies: Experience working within an Agile development process.<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>Nice-to-Haves</strong></div>
<div><br>Experience with Python for scripting or data processing tasks.<br>Familiarity with React or frontend technologies, enabling smoother collaboration with frontend teams.<br>Exposure to message queues or event-driven systems (Pub/Sub, Kafka, RabbitMQ).<br>Experience with AI/ML-powered services and agent frameworks.<br>Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Pulumi).<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>What We Offer</strong></div>
<div><br>Work on impactful, cutting-edge products powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.<br>Be part of an agile, close-knit team that values creativity, quality, and continuous learning.<br>A flexible working environment, with typically 2 days of hybrid working in our Belfast office, and one of the best work-life balances you'll find.<br>A (Mon to Thurs) 4-day work week during the holidays — July, August and December.<br>The last Friday of every month off.<br>Early finish every working Friday at 3pm.<br>25 days of annual leave, plus all NI bank holidays.<br>EMI Share options in a rapidly growing scale-up.<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>We're Looking for Someone Who</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Has strong leadership skills and proven ability to lead and support a team in delivering high quality code. Can drive strong collaboration to achieve a shared goal. Employs strong analytical and problem-solving skills to deliver solutions tailored to client needs. Stays up-to-date with the latest backend development trends, cloud-native standards, and best practices.<br>Sound like you?</div>
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Backend Tech Lead

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<h3>About Whitespace</h3>
<div>Whitespace is the UK’s sovereign AI company for Defence, National Security and Government. We design and deploy mission-ready AI that works in real operational environments, including cloud, edge and air-gapped settings. At the core of our ecosystem is Collective, our sovereign AI operating system.</div>
<h3>The Role&nbsp;</h3>
<p>We’re looking for a hands-on Lead Product Designer to take ownership of user experience and interaction design across our leading-edge Collective AI Operating System.</p>
<div>This is a high-impact role reporting directly into our Head of Product and Design, focused on shaping the design for Collective's AI application builder, orchestration, and natural language interfaces and the design framework for our solutions engineering applications. You will set the design strategy, deliver exceptional user experience, and define how our AI-first products help solve real-world problems for critical industries.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Hands-on and customer-facing, you will also own our Springboard design system, shape our design direction, and define our team’s work—choosing the best of next-gen AI-tooling to supercharge our design processes.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Highly collaborative, you’ll join a close-knit, cross-functional team of product managers, designers, researchers and engineers who work together to build AI-powered applications for high impact industries.&nbsp;</div>
<h3>Responsibilities</h3>
<div><strong>Design Ownership &amp; Execution</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<ul>
<li>Lead the user experience and interface design across our Collective Operating System.</li>
<li>Own the end-to-end design process—from early discovery and flows to final UI, prototypes, handoff and iteration.</li>
<li>Create clear, user-centred design artefacts including wireframes, flows, journey maps, and interactive prototypes for conversational&nbsp;design and intent-driven UI.</li>
<li>Partner closely with product managers to shape product direction and inform the roadmap.</li>
<li>Balance hands-on delivery with influencing how we make product decisions.</li>
</ul>
<div><br><strong>Design Practice &amp; Systems</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<ul>
<li>Shape and maintain internal design standards, workflow processes, and shared libraries with a focus on AI-first working practices.</li>
<li>Collaborate with our front end engineers to build and evolve a consistent design system—an atomic design approach to create the foundational components for the Collective platform.</li>
<li>Evaluate tooling and approaches that improve velocity, quality, and collaboration with product/engineering, including new Generative AI design tools including using AI coding assistants. &nbsp;</li>
<li>Lead on file structure, documentation, and process hygiene to ensure design remains a scalable discipline.</li>
<li>Take a systems approach to design foundational capability empowering our Solutions Engineers to rapidly create UI and workflows against new customer problems at speed.</li>
</ul>
<div><br><strong>Collaboration &amp; Stakeholder Influence</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<ul>
<li>Work closely with product management, researchers and engineering to deliver usable, valuable, feasible and compliant solutions.</li>
<li>Run design workshops and partner with discovery researchers to facilitate user research and understand the why.</li>
<li>Support early product framing by translating research, technical insight, and feedback into clear design direction.</li>
<li>Present design decisions clearly to internal stakeholders—both technical and non-technical.</li>
<li>Provide team leadership, design mentorship, and peer review for other designers, supporting a healthy and high-quality design culture.</li>
<li>Be willing to travel to customer sites on occasion, if required.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3><br>Required Experience, Skills and and Attributes</h3>
<div>8+ years of hands-on product design experience, ideally including enterprise or B2B environments.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Demonstrable Generative AI and wider AI experience, including working knowledge of the latest AI-first working practices.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Evidence of moving from ambiguty to designing and shipping real, complex digital products used in production.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Comfortable moving across multiple fidelity levels—from conceptual design and structure to detailed UI.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Deep skills in modern design tools and prototyping practices, but with an eagerness and adaptability to identify and use next-gen tooling –&nbsp; No strong allegiance to ways of working or specific tooling, you are motivated by shipping high quality user experiences.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>A basic understanding of code and experience using AI tooling to move from concept to prototype is advantageous.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>A pragmatic mindset—you bias toward good-enough solutions without compromising user outcomes.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Strong design communication and stakeholder engagement skills.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Experience working in or around regulated industries, Defence, Government, or complex platforms is a plus.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Due to UK Government and Defence customers, it is preferable that applications are willing and eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC), or hold active SC.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<h3>What we offer</h3>
<div>Work on impactful, cutting-edge products powered by artificial intelligence.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Be part of an agile, close-knit team that values creativity, quality, and continuous learning.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Influence to shape and lead design across our flagship Collective Operating System.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>A flexible working environment, with typically 2 days of hybrid working in our Belfast office, and one of the best work-life balances you’ll find:</div>
<ul>
<li>A 4-day week during the holidays - July, August and December</li>
<li>Early finish every working Friday at 3pm</li>
<li>25 days of annual leave, plus all NI bank holidays</li>
</ul>
<div>A salary up to £90,000 – depending on experience.</div>
<h3><br><strong>Join us</strong></h3>
<p>If you're a designer who loves solving complex problems through thoughtful, validated, hands-on design — and you're ready to lead by doing — drop us a line.</p>
<div><em>Whitespace is committed to creating an inclusive, supportive environment for all team members—we welcome candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences.</em></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
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AI Product Design Lead

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<div><strong>Partner Manager</strong></div>
<div>Reporting to: Chief Partnership Officer</div>
<div>Location: UK - preferably in the SE/SW of England, but not required. Belfast is the HQ and</div>
<div>this role can be based there</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>About Whitespace</strong></div>
<div>Whitespace leads in creating smarter, safer AI solutions for enterprises and governments. As</div>
<div>AI reshapes industries, many organisations struggle to harness its power responsibly,</div>
<div>securely, and at scale.</div>
<div>Whitespace bridges this gap with Collective — the AI Operating System for high-assurance</div>
<div>environments. Built for scale, trust, and action, Collective enables AI to perform securely and</div>
<div>effectively in the world’s most complex and sensitive contexts — from defence and critical</div>
<div>national infrastructure to enterprise and public sector ecosystems.</div>
<div>We’re not just building AI systems. We’re building the connective tissue for a future where</div>
<div>humans and machines operate as one intelligent ecosystem — where trust, sovereignty, and</div>
<div>intelligence converge.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Role Summary</strong></div>
<div>The Partner Manager will define how Whitespace scales globally by turning partnerships into</div>
<div>the core engine of trust, market access, and adoption.</div>
<div>Reporting to the Chief Partnership Officer, you will shape, grow, and manage strategic</div>
<div>relationships across defence, hyperscaler, and enterprise technology ecosystems. This role</div>
<div>sits at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and execution — combining commercial</div>
<div>acumen with a deep understanding of secure-by-design AI deployment.</div>
<div>You will operate as a trusted partner internally and externally, influencing investment</div>
<div>priorities and helping define how Collective integrates into the world’s most critical</div>
<div>technology and defence organisations.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Key Responsibilities</strong></div>
<div><strong>Partnership Development</strong></div>
<div>Identify, qualify, and engage strategic partners that align with Whitespace’s product roadmap</div>
<div>and mission</div>
<div>Structure, negotiate, and formalise agreements across OEM, channel, alliance, and GTM</div>
<div>frameworks</div>
<div>Design and deliver joint go-to-market and enablement programmes with hyperscalers,</div>
<div>systems integrators, and sovereign technology organisations.</div>
<div>Build frameworks that ensure compliance with secure-by-design and data sovereignty</div>
<div>principles.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Ecosystem Management</strong></div>
<div>Develop and manage a high-performing partner ecosystem across defence, AI, and</div>
<div>enterprise verticals</div>
<div>Establish clear success metrics and quarterly reviews to track partner performance, pipeline</div>
<div>contribution, and shared outcomes</div>
<div>Lead cross-functional initiatives that connect partnerships with Product, Engineering, and</div>
<div>Delivery priorities.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Strategic Alignment</strong></div>
<div>Work with the Chief Partnership Officer and COO to influence strategic direction, resource</div>
<div>allocation, and partner-driven investment decisions</div>
<div>Surface market intelligence, policy developments, and funding programmes shaping</div>
<div>sovereign AI ecosystems</div>
<div>Represent Whitespace at industry events, trade missions, and policy forums, building</div>
<div>visibility and credibility with key stakeholders</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Internal Collaboration</strong></div>
<div>Coordinate across Product, Engineering, and Commercial teams to operationalise partner</div>
<div>commitments</div>
<div>Support onboarding, CRM visibility, and performance dashboards for partner-related activity</div>
<div>Champion a partnership mindset throughout the company — creating repeatable</div>
<div>frameworks for collaboration and trust</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Role Requirements</strong></div>
<div><strong>Experience (preferred)</strong></div>
<div>Minimum 2 years in partner, channel, or alliance management within AI, defence technology,</div>
<div>enterprise software, or related sectors (ideal)</div>
<div>Proven success establishing partnerships that delivered measurable market or revenue</div>
<div>growth</div>
<div>Experience negotiating complex commercial and technical agreementsJOB DESCRIPTION</div>
<div>Familiarity with regulated or high-assurance environments (MOD, NATO, government,</div>
<div>defence primes, or hyperscalers)</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Skills &amp; Attributes</strong></div>
<div>Strategic thinker with the ability to build and execute long-term partner strategies</div>
<div>Excellent communicator and relationship builder at C-suite and executive levels</div>
<div>Strong commercial judgement and understanding of contractual frameworks</div>
<div>Analytical, structured, and capable of simplifying complex ecosystems into actionable plans</div>
<div>Operates with autonomy, clarity, and accountability in fast-moving environments</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>What We Offer</strong></div>
<div>The opportunity to shape the partnership model powering Collective, the AI Operating</div>
<div>System for high-assurance environments</div>
<div>Work directly with leadership and world-class partners across defence, AI, and deep-tech</div>
<div>ecosystems</div>
<div>Competitive compensation package including equity participation and performance-linked</div>
<div>incentives</div>
<div>Exposure to sovereign and enterprise AI programmes that directly influence national</div>
<div>capability and digital transformation agendas</div>
<div>Four-day working weeks during July, August, and December</div>
<div>3pm Friday finishes all year round</div>
<div>A team that values precision, curiosity, and impact over bureaucracy</div>
<div>Join Whitespace to build the ecosystem that defines the future of trusted, sovereign AI —</div>
<div>where innovation meets assurance, and ambition meets purpose.</div>
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Partner Manager

<html><head></head><body><div>Job Title: Senior Account Executive<br><br><br>Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent<br><br>Salary: Competitive<br><br>We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Account Executive to join our dynamic team in the computer software industry. As a Senior Account Executive, you will be responsible for managing and growing key client accounts, driving sales revenue, and building strong relationships with clients.<br><br>Key Responsibilities:<br>- Develop and execute strategic account plans to achieve sales targets and objectives<br>- Identify and pursue new business opportunities within existing accounts<br>- Build and maintain strong relationships with key decision makers and stakeholders<br>- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure client satisfaction and retention<br>- Provide regular updates and reports on account performance and sales activities<br><br>Requirements:<br>- Proven track record of success in a sales or account management role within the computer software industry<br>- Strong understanding of software products and services<br>- Excellent communication and negotiation skills<br>- Ability to work independently and as part of a team<br>- Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, or related field<br><br>If you are a motivated and results-driven professional with a passion for sales and account management, we would love to hear from you. Join us at [Company Name] and take your career to the next level. Apply now!</div></body></html>

Account Executive

<html><head></head><body><div>We are seeking a talented AI Engineer to join our dynamic team in the computer software industry. As an Engineer, you will be responsible for developing and implementing cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions to enhance our software products.<br><br>Key responsibilities:<br>- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and develop AI algorithms and models<br>- Analyse and interpret data to drive AI initiatives<br>- Implement machine learning and deep learning techniques to improve software performance<br>- Stay up-to-date with the latest AI trends and technologies<br>- Work closely with product managers and developers to integrate AI capabilities into our software products<br><br>Requirements:<br>- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field<br>- Proven experience in AI development and implementation<br>- Strong programming skills in languages such as Python, Java, or C++<br>- Knowledge of machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch<br>- Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail<br><br>This is a full-time, permanent role with a competitive salary and benefits package. If you are passionate about AI and eager to work in a collaborative and friendly environment, we would love to hear from you. Apply now to join our team!</div></body></html>

AI Engineer

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<div><strong>Department: Engineering</strong></div>
<div><strong>Reporting to: Engineering Manager</strong></div>
<div><strong>Salary: £70,000 - £90,000</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br><strong>About Whitespace</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br>Whitespace leads in creating smarter, safer AI solutions for enterprises. As AI presents transformative opportunities, many companies struggle to harness its full potential.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br>Whitespace bridges this gap with Collective - The AI Operating System for high-assurance environments. Built for scale, trust and action - even in the most secure, complex or disconnected settings.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br>We’re not just building AI systems. We’re laying the foundation for a future where humans and machines work together like never before.&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br><strong>Role Summary</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br>The Lead Backend Engineer is responsible for leading and mentoring the backend engineering team. This role involves making key design choices, selecting technologies, and setting coding standards. The successful candidate will collaborate closely with stakeholders to understand their needs, create technical specifications, and guide development teams to ensure robust software systems. They must be an expert in developing scalable services and have knowledge of AI.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br><strong>Duties &amp; Responsibilities</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br><strong>Team Leadership and Mentorship</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br>Lead the backend engineering team by providing mentorship and guidance.<br>Make key design choices and set coding standards for the team.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Collaboration with Stakeholders</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br>Collaborate with cross-functional teams to refine product requirements as a technical lead.<br>Ensure alignment between development teams on how things are built and communicated.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Technical Design and Development</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br>Develop and maintain backend services and APIs using Python or Node.js.<br>Create technical specifications for software systems, ensuring they are robust and well-built.<br>Code Quality and Reliability<br>Ensure high code quality and reliability in all backend services.<br>Work with teams to implement scalable server-side architecture.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Role Requirements</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br><strong>Work Experience</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br>Minimum of 5 years’ experience in backend development using Python or NodeJS.<br>Strong understanding of scalable server-side architecture.<br>Expertise in developing services at scale.<br>Knowledge of AI technologies is beneficial.<br>Problem-solving skills and the ability to work in an agile environment.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><strong>Skills &amp; Abilities</strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br>Proficiency in Python or NodeJS.<br>Excellent communication and collaboration skills.<br>Ability to mentor and manage a team effectively.<br>Strong technical leadership and decision-making abilities.<br>Experience working in an agile development environment.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Closing date: Open until filled</div>
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Job Openings

Backend Tech Lead

AI Product Design Lead

Partner Manager

Account Executive

AI Engineer

Lead Backend Engineer