Founding Engineer, Full-Stack

Whym; Oakland (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid in Oakland/Bend

Remote-friendly

Competitive equity

Public Benefit Corp

Job summary

Whym is building a hybrid engineering team in Oakland/Bend focused on backend efficiency and scalable data pipelines. You will own end-to-end systems from backend services to client-facing apps, with room to touch frontend when the product demands it.

We value strong generalists who can ship features end-to-end in a fast-paced startup. Expect to work across data modeling, async processing, and performance tuning, while collaborating with product and design.

Qualifications

• 8+ years engineering experience with substantial full-stack work.
• Strong backend foundations: service design, data modeling, async, performance debugging.
• Frontend/mobile experience in production is a plus; capable across web/mobile.
• Excellent written communication; able to document decisions clearly.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and early-stage startup dynamics.

Responsibilities

• Design and ship backend services and APIs.
• Handle data pipelines and analytics integration.
• Contribute to mobile and web apps with architecture and performance focus.
• Improve infra and developer experience (CI, observability, deploys).
• Prototype and research to answer product questions and engage users.

Skills

Backend systems design

Full-stack development

React / React Native

iOS/Android (native)

AI tools usage

Documentation and communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Startup experience

Tools

CI/CD

Observability

Deploy pipelines

Job description

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 will 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 the Search & Relevance Lead 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.
• 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 — comfort working next to the Search & Relevance Lead'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 two-person founding team with experience from Google, LinkedIn, Lyft, and earlier-stage startups. Whym is a Public Benefit Corporation with pre-seed funding.