Founding Engineer

Solva; New York (NY); On-site; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology firm based in New York is seeking a founding engineer to play a pivotal role in building core products and expanding the engineering team. In this ownership role, you will architect production systems, lead on infrastructure and backend technologies, and collaborate with the CTO to shape the technical vision. Candidates should have strong backend experience, a leadership mindset, and be excited to innovate in complex industries. This position offers a unique opportunity to create scalable systems and drive significant impact.

Qualifications

• Strong backend and infrastructure experience.
• Ability to own technical decisions.
• Excited to build directly with customers.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build production systems.
• Lead on infrastructure and backend.
• Collaborate with CTO on technical vision.

Skills

Strong backend experience

Cloud infrastructure

Scaling systems

Observability

Technical leadership

Tools

Go

Rust

Kotlin

Postgres

GCP

AWS

Kubernetes

Terraform

CI/CD

React

Vite

TypeScript

Job description

As founding engineer you'll be an integral part of the Solva team. You will work with the founders and have defining role in building the core product and expanding the engineering team.

One week you’ll be deep in backend systems and cloud infrastructure, the next you’ll be making the architectural decisions that shape how multi-billion-dollar insurers operate in the AI age.

This is a true ownership role. You won’t just ship code, you’ll help set the technical direction, lead initiatives on new projects, and take part in building the engineering team and culture from the ground up.

What You’ll Do

• Architect and build production systems for our core products
• Lead on infrastructure and backend (Go, Rust, Kotlin, Postgres, GCP/AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD)
• Work across the stack where needed (React, Vite, TypeScript)
• Ship fast, iterate with customers and turn messy problems into clean, scalable systems
• Collaborate with the CTO on the long-term technical vision and future team structure

What We’re Looking For

• Strong backend and infrastructure experience (cloud, infra-as-code, scaling systems, observability)
• Ability to own technical decisions and balance pragmatism with long-term design
• Excited to build directly with customers in complex, real-world industries
• Joy in moving fast, breaking down ambiguity on a whiteboard and making solid engineering judgement calls
• Leadership mindset: eager to shape culture, mentor future hires, and grow into a key technical leader