Founding Software Engineer - Full-Stack & ML Leader

Socket.dev; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Socket.dev is seeking an experienced Founding Engineer to lead full-stack and ML development, bridging backend systems, ML pipelines, and data engineering. You will mentor a high-performing team, shape technical strategy, and drive scalable, enterprise-grade solutions to support rapid growth.

You will own architecture reviews, collaborate with Product and Design, and explore LLM fine-tuning and serverless deployments on platforms like Railway or Vercel to stay ahead.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional software development experience, including leadership roles.
• Deep Bun (TypeScript) and React.js expertise.
• Experience integrating ML into production environments.
• Exposure to startup/VC-backed environments a plus.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership, design reviews, and strategic planning for the team.
• Architect, develop, and maintain server-side features with Node.js (TypeScript) and React.js UIs.
• Oversee on-call rotations and robust debugging to ensure reliability.
• Translate product requirements into scalable technical designs with cross-functional collaboration.
• Explore trends like LLM fine-tuning and serverless deployments to maintain competitive edge.

Skills

Bun (TypeScript)

React.js

Node.js

ML systems

Team leadership

Architecture & design

Tools

OpenAI prompts

LLM fine-tuning

RAG pipelines

Northflank

Postgres

AI SDK

Railway

Vercel

Job description

Socket.dev is seeking an experienced Founding Engineer to lead full-stack and ML development, bridging backend systems, ML pipelines, and data engineering. You will mentor a high-performing team, shape technical strategy, and drive scalable, enterprise-grade solutions to support rapid growth.

You will own architecture reviews, collaborate with Product and Design, and explore LLM fine-tuning and serverless deployments on platforms like Railway or Vercel to stay ahead.