Staff Software Engineer

Role overview A venture-backed startup building a community engagement platform is hiring its first founding engineer to work directly with the CTO. The product helps organizations run trusted, high-engagement communities inside messaging tools people already use. The role combines architecture, product shaping, customer interaction, and AI-assisted workflows in a small, accountable team.

Responsibilities - Define system architecture and make foundational technical decisions that shape the product - Own systems end-to-end, from design and implementation through monitoring and iteration - Talk to customers directly, synthesize needs, and contribute to product direction - Build internal AI workflows that accelerate engineering velocity across the team - Operate across the stack, including the integrations platform, embedding and retrieval layer, and AI-driven community tooling - Establish how the engineering function operates as the team grows

Requirements - At least five years of experience as a full-time full-stack engineer at staff level or equivalent - Strong backend fundamentals and experience designing systems running in production - Comfort across modern web technologies including TypeScript, React, Next.js, and Node.js - Working knowledge of relational databases such as PostgresSQL and cloud platforms like Cloudflare Workers or Vercel - Ability to learn unfamiliar parts of the stack quickly and apply good UX judgment - Track record of operating independently with high accountability

Nice to have - Early-stage startup experience or work directly with founders - Background delivering enterprise products - Strong front-end craft and an eye for distinguishing good from bad user experience

Benefits and work setup - Competitive salary and meaningful equity with a 10-year stock option exercise window - Unlimited paid time off, with encouragement to actually take it - At least eight weeks of fully paid parental leave - Generous budget for equipment, software, and ergonomics - Monthly allowance for community memberships and learning, with conference budgets available - Co-working membership available in San Francisco and New York - Top-tier health insurance for employees and dependents, fully covered (US) or supplemental coverage provided elsewhere