Company details

HEADCOUNT

25-99

ORG TYPE

Startup

SECTOR

Finance

WEBSITE

https://www.tracelight.ai

About the company

Tracelight builds an AI assistant that works inside Excel for financial modelling, aiming to help analysts build, check, and automate spreadsheets faster. Public launch coverage in August 2025 links Tracelight’s rollout to a $3.6m seed round and early users in finance and professional services. Tracelight positions the product as “AI for financial models” rather than a separate modelling tool, which matters if you live in Excel day to day. Current hiring is focused on core engineering roles in London.

Locations and presence

Tracelight is London-headquartered, and current engineering roles are advertised as on-site in the Hoxton office for 5–6 days per week. The public hiring flow is founder-led, with founders involved from the first call through to the paid work project.

Palpable Score

46.7

/ 100

Tracelight is transparent about interview steps and pays candidates for the trial project, which is more respectful than most early-stage startups. The score is held back because the only visible openings are high-bar “foundational” engineering roles, and there is almost no public evidence yet on junior progression, retention, or early-career support beyond the interview stage.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

5.4

/ 20

The company only lists two open roles (AI Engineer and Software Engineer), both framed as foundational hires rather than 0–3 year entry points.
Tracelight asks for “top centile engineer” evidence and prior agent-building experience in the AI Engineer role, which filters out most graduates.
The company has no visible internships, apprenticeships, junior titles, or early-career commercial roles on the careers page right now.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

14.6

/ 20

The company publishes a clear four-step process: founder intro call, technical or portfolio discussion, a paid project, then an offer with feedback.
Tracelight commits to a paid one-day on-site working session and also describes a paid two-day project option, which reduces the usual “free work” risk.
The company does not publish salary ranges and routes applications via email, so compensation clarity and application tracking are weaker than the process description.

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

10.8

/ 20

The company’s paid work project is framed as working closely with the founders on a real problem, which can be strong hands-on learning for the right hire.
Tracelight sets a very high-autonomy expectation (“high agency”, shipping fast, performance optimisation), which suits experienced builders more than brand-new grads who need structured ramping.
The company does not publicly describe onboarding, mentoring cadence, progression levels, or a learning budget, so support after joining is hard to verify.

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

9.2

/ 20

The company pays candidates for the trial project, which is a meaningful fairness signal during hiring.
Tracelight does not share salary bands, equity terms, or benefits on the role pages, so early-career candidates cannot benchmark offers before investing time.
The company’s roles are full-time and on-site, but public materials do not spell out stability basics like pension, healthcare, or leave policy.

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

6.7

/ 20

The company has public traction signals like a seed-round launch announcement and claims of strong time savings for early users, but these are not employee outcome measures.
Tracelight’s LinkedIn profile lists a small team size band (11–50) and a 2024 founding date, but public sources do not show junior-to-mid promotions or repeat early-career hiring cycles.
The company’s Glassdoor profile currently has no employee reviews, which blocks verification of retention, manager quality, and early-career satisfaction patterns.