Full Stack Software Engineer

Empathix; Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and ESOP

Hybrid working autonomy

Paid parental leave and wellbeing

ThinkFest offsite and team events

Job summary

Ideally is reimagining market research by embedding real human insight into every creative and commercial decision. Our AI-led platform delivers rapid, robust consumer feedback to marketers and insights teams, turning gut feel into customer-led decisions.

With 250+ clients in 30+ countries, we’re growing across APAC and US from our Auckland base. You’ll join a small, high-calibre Product Engineering team to design, build and ship features across the full stack, including React/TypeScript front

Qualifications

• Experience with C#/.NET and React in full-stack development.
• Experience taking software from problem through to production, not just a defined piece of work.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS) is valuable.
• Foundations in relational databases, SQL, automated testing, CI/CD, observability and software security.
• Experience with AI-enabled development tools and LLM APIs is beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship features across the full stack, from frontend to backend.
• Own problems end to end with Product, Design and Research.
• Develop and improve LLM-powered features and pipelines, evaluating approaches on quality, latency and cost.
• Keep the platform healthy with clean, maintainable code, testing, CI/CD and security.
• Improve tools and ways of working as the product scales.

Skills

Full-stack development

C#/.NET

React

TypeScript

Cloud infrastructure

Relational databases

SQL

Automated testing

CI/CD

Observability

Software security

AI-enabled development tools

LLM APIs

Prompting

Retrieval

Evaluation

Clear communication

Tools

Claude Code

AWS

Job description

Ideally is reinventing market research so real human insight can be part of every creative and commercial decision.
Research has traditionally been slow, expensive and locked to a handful of experts. Ideally changes that. Our AI-led platform gives marketers and insights teams rapid, robust consumer feedback, helping them move from gut feel to better, customer-led decisions.
In just three years, we've grown to 250+ clients including Google, Omnicom, Kraft Heinz and Danone across 30+ countries. We’re building towards something bigger: making customer intelligence an always-on part of how marketing teams work and make decisions.
With teams in Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne and New York, we’re now building the next stage of our growth across APAC and US.

Why work at Ideally

You’ll join a small, high-calibre Product Engineering team with the opportunity to shape a global product from New Zealand.

We keep hierarchy and bureaucracy light. Engineers have the autonomy to use their judgement, experiment and influence how we build, working alongside smart, low-ego people across Engineering, Product, Design and Research.

There’s plenty still to build and plenty to learn as the product and technology evolve. And with ESOP, you’ll have skin in the game in what we’re creating.

About the role

As a Full Stack Engineer at Ideally reporting directly to the CTO, you’ll design, build and ship features across the whole stack - from our React and TypeScript front end and .NET services to AWS infrastructure and the AI pipelines that power our insights.

You’ll own problems end to end, not tickets; working with Product, Design and Research to understand what customers need, shape the solution, make pragmatic trade-offs and get good software into production.

AI is part of both what we build and how we build it. You’ll work on LLM-powered features and pipelines, testing different models, prompts and retrieval approaches against quality, latency and cost. You’ll also use tools like Claude Code as a core part of your day-to-day engineering workflow.

We’re a small team, so you’ll have plenty of scope to contribute beyond your immediate build; from architecture and technical decisions to improving how we work as the product scales.

What you’ll own

Build and ship valuable product: Design, build, test and ship across the full stack, breaking problems into useful increments and getting them into customers’ hands quickly.

Own problems end to end: Work with Product, Design and Research to understand customer needs, shape solutions and make pragmatic trade-offs between speed, quality and scope.

Build trustworthy AI capability: Develop and improve LLM-powered features and pipelines, evaluating approaches based on output quality, latency and cost, with the right guardrails around data, hallucination risk and failure.

Keep the platform healthy: Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code and contribute to testing, CI/CD, observability, security and architecture. Monitor what you ship and fix root causes rather than symptoms.

Make engineering better: Improve the tools, environments and ways of working that help the team move faster and build better software.

What you’ll bring

We’re looking for a product-minded engineer operating at high-intermediate to senior level. We care more about what you’ve built, the approach you take, the problems you’ve owned and the judgement you bring than the number of years you’ve been doing it.

You’ll likely bring:

Strong full-stack development experience, with C#/.NET and React, TypeScript or comparable modern front-end technologies.

Experience taking software from problem through to production, not just completing a defined piece of development work.

Experience with cloud infrastructure. We use AWS, but strong transferable cloud experience matters too.

Good foundations in relational databases and SQL, automated testing, CI/CD, observability and software security.

Experience with AI-enabled development tools. Experience building with LLM APIs, prompting, retrieval or evaluation is valuable, but you don’t need to have done all of it.

Sound technical and product judgement — you can navigate ambiguity, break down problems and make pragmatic trade-offs.

Clear communication, curiosity and a low-ego approach to working with others. You’re comfortable bringing a point of view, being challenged and changing your mind when there’s a better answer.

Where you’ll work

You’ll be based in our Auckland office. We have a hybrid, office-primary model, typically working remotely two days per week, with anchor office days and flexibility when needed.

We focus on impact rather than hours and trust you to manage your time, energy and workload without an always-on expectation.

Some of what we offer

Competitive salary and ESOP

Room to grow your scope as the product and company scale

Hybrid working, autonomy and a focus on impact rather than hours

Paid parental leave, fertility support and wellbeing resources

ThinkFest, our annual company-wide offsite, plus plenty of opportunities to connect as a team

The perks matter, but they’re not the main reason to join. The bigger opportunity is doing ambitious work with high-calibre people, having real ownership and helping build a product and company that’s still taking shape.

Who should apply

If this role or Ideally excites you and you can see yourself having an impact here, we’d love to hear from you - even if you haven’t worked with every technology we use.

We care more about what you’ve built, how you approach problems and how quickly you learn than matching a rigid checklist.

We also know from research that female and non-binary applicants are less likely to apply unless they feel 100% qualified. If that’s you, please take this as your nudge to apply anyway.