FOUNDING TECHNICAL LEAD

Waterstone Human Capital; Salt Lake City (UT); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

On-site role in Salt Lake City

Job summary

Waterstone Human Capital is seeking a hands-on Principal Architect to design and ship an AI-native wellness platform. You will translate founder specs into production-grade systems, spanning backend services, data pipelines, AI workflows, and wearable integrations, while guiding a small engineering team.

This on-site role in Salt Lake City requires deep systems experience, practical AI tooling, and close collaboration with a visionary founder to turn prototypes into scalable, secure solutions.

Qualifications

• Deep backend and systems architecture experience across end-to-end services and data.
• Hands-on engineering ability to diagnose and fix problems in unfamiliar codebases.
• Proven track record shipping zero-to-one products from idea to production.
• Strong knowledge of modern AI/ML systems, including data pipelines and model integration.
• Experience using Claude Code or similar AI coding tools for architecture and implementation.
• Experience leading a small engineering team while remaining hands-on.
• Ability to distinguish architecture problems from model, integration, or product decisions.
• Comfortable working closely with a founder and operating with incomplete information.

Responsibilities

• Architect backend and systems across services, data, APIs, integrations, AI workflows, apps, and devices.
• Turn product specs and prototypes into secure, production-ready systems.
• Write code, review AI-generated code, design schemas and interfaces, debug.
• Lead two software engineers while staying hands-on in architecture and development.
• Coordinate specialists in electronics, devices, and hardware.
• Translate architecture into priorities, milestones, owners, and delivery dates.
• Help build a consumer wellness experience with an AI health coach using phone signals.
• Advance a practitioner platform for deeper assessments and personalized protocols.
• Own and extend the company's internal AI operating system.

Skills

Backend architecture

Hands-on engineering

Zero-to-one product

AI/ML systems

Architectural judgment

Founder collaboration

Tools

Claude Code

Job description

Own the Architecture Behind an AI-Native Wellness Platform

If you've architected and personally shipped a real system, zero to one, and you want to do it again at the intersection of AI, hardware, and wellness, this is that seat. My client is an early-stage, founder-led wellness technology company building a connected ecosystem of practitioner software, consumer experiences, AI-assisted assessments, and wearable devices, and they need someone who can take a founder's specs and prototypes and turn them into production-grade systems.

What You Will Own

• Backend and systems architecture across services, data, APIs, integrations, AI workflows, applications, and connected devices
• Turning the founder's product specs, designs, and prototypes into secure, maintainable, production-ready systems
• Writing code, reviewing AI-generated code, designing schemas and interfaces, debugging, and stepping directly into implementation
• Leading two software engineers while staying personally involved in architecture and development
• Coordinating additional specialists in electronics, devices, and hardware
• Translating architecture into priorities, milestones, owners, and delivery dates
• Helping build a consumer wellness experience with an AI health coach using phone camera/microphone signals
• Advancing a practitioner platform supporting deeper assessments and personalized protocols
• Owning and extending the company's internal AI operating system

What You Bring

• Deep backend and systems architecture experience, with a demonstrated ability to design how services, data, applications, models, and integrations work together end to end
• Current, hands‑on engineering ability, able to enter an unfamiliar codebase and diagnose and fix problems yourself
• A record of personally architecting, building, and shipping meaningful products from zero to one
• Strong working knowledge of modern AI/ML systems: data pipelines, model integration, evaluation, guardrails, production operations
• Deep, practical experience using Claude Code or comparable AI coding tools for architecture, implementation, testing, debugging, and documentation
• Experience leading a small engineering team while remaining hands‑on
• Judgment to distinguish an architecture problem from a model, integration, or product decision
• Comfort working closely with a visionary founder, operating with incomplete information

Especially Useful Experience

• Multimodal AI, computer vision, audio processing, vocal biomarkers, biosignals, or health‑related data
• Wearables, IoT, firmware, electronics, or other hardware‑connected products
• Health technology, wellness, clinical workflows, diagnostics, or regulated data
• Founding engineer, principal engineer, technical lead, or early‑stage Head of Engineering experience

This Role Is Not For

• A product manager who expects engineers to own architecture and implementation
• A project manager whose contribution stops at the roadmap and meeting cadence
• An AI enthusiast who can prompt effectively but can’t evaluate or repair the underlying system
• A people leader who no longer wants to code, debug, or make detailed technical decisions

Compensation: $140,000–$200,000 base depending on experience, plus discretionary bonus and equity (approximately 0.5%–1%, 1-year cliff, 4-year vest) for an exceptional candidate. On‑site, Salt Lake City, Utah.