Engineer

OJ Digital; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

OJ Digital, based in San Francisco, is building a personalised cancer vaccine platform and seeks a Founding Product Engineer to own the product experience from day one.

You’ll own frontend and backend, shape UI/UX, and work directly with clinical, scientific, laboratory, and operations teams to turn ideas into usable software.

As the first dedicated product engineer, you’ll set standards and architecture while scaling the product internationally.

Qualifications

• 1–6 years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong full-stack development experience with React, TypeScript, Python and PostgreSQL.
• Experience owning features end to end, from idea to production.
• Experience in an early-stage startup and autonomy.
• Strong UI/UX sense to build polished interfaces.
• Evidence of software used by real people, including non-technical users.
• Ability to work through ambiguity and take ownership without detailed specs.

Responsibilities

• Build products from 0 to 1, owning frontend and backend.
• Own the user experience and reimagine scientific dashboards for clinicians and patients.
• Collaborate with clinical, laboratory, manufacturing and operations teams to translate requirements.
• Develop internal tools for patient management and data access.
• Make architectural decisions and drive improvements across a modern full-stack environment.
• Help establish engineering best practices as the founding product engineer.

Skills

React

TypeScript

Python

PostgreSQL

Job description

Full Stack | React, TypeScript, Python | Early-Stage Biotech

We're working with an ambitious, early-stage biotech company developing personalised cancer vaccines, and they're looking for a Founding Product Engineer to take ownership of their product experience from day one.

This is an opportunity for an engineer who loves building products, has strong design instincts, and wants to take ideas from concept to production without layers of process or predefined specifications.

You'll be the first engineer fully dedicated to the company's product-facing systems, working closely with clinical, scientific, laboratory and operational teams to build software that makes complex scientific processes accessible, intuitive and useful.

The Opportunity

You’ll own the development of new products and internal tools, combining full-stack engineering with product thinking and UI/UX design.

Your work will directly shape how clinicians and patients interact with scientific data, while helping the business scale its operations internationally.

This isn't a role where you'll simply pick up tickets and implement someone else's designs. You'll have the autonomy to identify problems, challenge assumptions, make architectural decisions and decide what great looks like.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Build products from 0 to 1: Take new product ideas from initial concept through design, development and launch, owning both frontend and backend.
• Own the user experience: Reimagine scientific dashboards and build intuitive interfaces that make complex information easy to understand for clinicians, patients and non-technical users.
• Work across the business: Partner directly with clinical, laboratory, manufacturing and operations teams to understand their workflows and turn loosely defined requirements into effective software.
• Build internal tools: Develop applications and workflows that support patient management, data access, operational processes and collaboration with external partners.
• Make technical decisions: Own architecture, implementation and ongoing improvements across a modern full-stack environment.
• Shape the engineering culture: As the first dedicated product engineer, establish best practices and help define how the company builds and delivers software as it grows.

What We’re Looking For

We’re interested in engineers who combine strong technical ability with excellent product judgement and an eye for design.

You’ll ideally have:

• 1–6 years of professional software engineering experience, with evidence of building and shipping meaningful products.
• Strong full-stack development experience, ideally using React, TypeScript, Python and PostgreSQL.
• Experience owning features or products end to end, from initial idea through to production.
• Experience working in an early-stage startup, ideally Seed to Series B, where you've operated autonomously and worked directly with founders or business stakeholders.
• A strong sense of UI/UX, with the ability to build polished, intuitive interfaces without relying on a dedicated designer.
• Evidence that you've built software used by real people, particularly non-technical users.
• The ability to work through ambiguity, make sensible trade-offs and take ownership without needing a detailed specification.

What Would Make You Stand Out?

• Experience as a founding engineer or one of the first 10 employees at a startup.
• A background in design engineering, UI/UX or frontend-heavy product development.
• Experience building complex dashboards, data visualisations or scientific interfaces.
• A portfolio, personal website or side project that demonstrates your product thinking and attention to detail.
• Experience building products in biotech, healthtech or other technically complex environments.

We’re more interested in what you’ve built than the number of years on your CV. A strong portfolio and evidence of exceptional judgement can matter more than a conventional career history.

You don’t need a background in biology or oncology. Curiosity, adaptability and the ability to learn quickly are far more important.

Why Join?

• Founding-level ownership: Take responsibility for a core part of the product and help shape its future.
• Real autonomy: Influence product direction, UX and technical architecture from the outset.
• Meaningful impact: Build software that supports the development and delivery of personalised cancer treatments.
• Direct collaboration: Work alongside scientific, clinical and operational experts rather than operating in an isolated engineering team.
• Room to grow: Help establish the product and engineering foundations as the business scales internationally.

Interested?

If you’re a product-minded engineer who enjoys building things from scratch, cares deeply about how software looks and feels, and wants to work on a genuinely meaningful technical challenge, we’d love to hear from you.