Founding Engineer

Whym; Oakland (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Whym in Oakland and Bend hybrid is seeking a strong generalist to build backend services, data pipelines, and the apps users touch. You will own end-to-end systems, ship features, and may touch frontend or mobile when required.

We value 8+ years in engineering, solid backend foundations, and the ability to document decisions. You should thrive in an early-stage startup with high agency and cross-functional collaboration.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in engineering with substantial full-stack work shipped to production.
• Strong backend fundamentals: design a service, model data, reason about async behavior.
• Experience shipping frontend or mobile code in production is a plus.
• Ability to document decisions and communicate clearly.
• Comfort with ambiguity and high agency in an early-stage startup.

Responsibilities

• Build backend services and APIs, define data modeling and performance considerations.
• Develop data pipelines moving activity data, user signals, and analytics.
• Contribute to mobile and web apps with architecture and feature work.
• Improve infra and developer experience, CI and deploy processes.
• Prototype and research to answer product questions and influence direction.
• Make product and technical decisions independently when needed.

Skills

Backend systems

Full-stack

APIs

Data pipelines

System design

Debugging performance

Documentation

Autonomous work

Job description

About the role

You will build Whym across the stack. The services behind the product, the data layer that feeds them, and the apps users actually touch — all of it is in scope. We expect most of your past work to be backend, and we expect you to be excited about reaching into the client when the product demands it.

If you have spent time as a frontend or mobile engineer somewhere along the way, that’s a real plus. We are not looking for someone with deep specialist chops on the client side. We are looking for a strong generalist who has built serious backend systems and is comfortable getting their hands on the apps too.

This is a tiny startup. Everyone does customer support, including the CEO and CTO. You will too. Some weeks you will design a schema; other weeks you will debug a deploy, ship a feature end to end, or sit with a user to understand why a flow broke. You should find that appealing, not beneath you.

What you’ll work on

• Backend services and APIs. Design and ship the services Whym runs on. Data modeling, async work, performance, reliability. You own how the client and server fit together.
• Data and pipelines. Build the plumbing that moves activity data, user signals, and analytics through the system. Partner with Lynn, our Head of Search and Discovery, on the data layer that feeds ranking and eval.
• Mobile and web. Contribute to the apps users hold in their hands. Architecture, performance, and feature work across mobile and web. You do not need to lead this surface, but you do need to be able to ship on it.
• Infra and developer experience. Touch CI, observability, and deploy when it unblocks the team. Raise the floor on how fast we can ship without breaking things.
• Prototypes and research. Build throwaway prototypes to answer product questions. Sit in on user research and let what you hear change what you build.
• Product and design calls. Make product and technical decisions independently when needed. You have good product sense.

What we’re looking for

• 8+ years in engineering, with substantial full-stack work shipped to production. We want to hear about specific systems you built end to end, the decisions you made, and how they held up under real users.
• Strong backend foundations. You can design a service, model the data, reason about async behavior, and debug a performance regression. You do not need a platform team to get work done.
• Comfort on the client. You have shipped frontend or mobile code in production and can hold your own on a React, React Native, or native iOS/Android codebase. You do not need to be a specialist here, but you do need to be willing and capable.
• Strong product instinct. You connect what you build to what users feel. You know which detail matters and can say why in plain language.
• AI-native. You use modern AI tools in your daily work and have opinions about which ones earn their keep. You know what AI slop looks like and you do not turn it in as final work.
• Clear writer and communicator. You document decisions. You disagree without posturing.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. You thrive at early stage, and drive forward towards good outcomes.
• High agency. You notice what needs doing and do it without waiting to be asked.

Strong pluses

• Time spent as a frontend or mobile engineer, with shipped consumer-facing work you can point to.
• Experience with search, feed, recommender, or ranking systems, and comfort working next to our Head of Search and Discovery's domain.
• Offline-first, real-time, or location-based product experience.
• Voice, multimodal, or agent-driven interface work.
• Design, motion, or interaction-design sensibility that goes beyond engineering.
• Infra and developer-experience instincts — CI, observability, deploy pipelines you have actually owned.
• Experience at an early-stage startup where you wore many hats.
• Systems thinker. You build processes that scale. You document what you build.

Location and working model

Whym is a hybrid team based in Oakland, California and Bend, Oregon. We work together in person three days a week and reserve the other days for focused remote work. We prefer candidates who can work with us at our hubs, but will make room for exceptional candidates who want to be fully remote. Bend-based and remote teammates travel to the Bay Area regularly so the whole team can spend time together.

About Whym

Whym is an AI-powered app that helps people make time for what matters most. We suggest activities aligned with your values and help you coordinate plans with close friends. We are a three-person founding team with experience from Google, LinkedIn, Lyft, and earlier-stage startups. Whym is a Public Benefit Corporation with pre‑seed funding.