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PlacedPlaced in 28 days
Founding Software Engineer (Full-Stack)
Early-stage startup, founding engineering team, NYC
Comp at placement$160k - $200k + equityEquityNew York, NY · Hybrid
About the role
Founding hires set the ceiling for everyone who comes after them, so the founders wanted range over specialty: someone who could stand up the first version of the product end to end, make sensible early architecture calls, and then hire and set standards for the engineers who follow. The stack was open, the roadmap moved weekly, and the right person needed to be comfortable with that.
What the role owned
- The first production version of the product: data model, API, and web front end.
- Early architecture and tooling choices that the next five engineers will inherit.
- Shipping directly with the founders, from customer conversations to deploys.
- Setting the engineering bar and helping hire the next engineers.
What the client was looking for
- Has shipped full-stack products end to end, ideally as an early engineer somewhere that grew.
- Strong in a modern TypeScript or Python stack and comfortable across the whole surface, from database to UI.
- High ownership and low ego, with a bias for shipping and learning from real users.
- Wants the founding-engineer job specifically, not a senior seat at a larger company.
Nice to have
- Prior founding or first-ten-engineer experience.
- Exposure to AI-assisted product features or LLM integrations.
How the search ran
Founding hire. Calibrated with the founders, two finalists, closed in 28 days.
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