Product Engineer

Recruiting from Scratch LLC; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 185,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity for early stage

Direct founder access

Sponsorship available

Job summary

Recruiting from Scratch LLC is hiring a Product Engineer in San Francisco, CA. This hybrid role requires three days per week in-office in Downtown San Francisco and offers a base salary of $185,000–$230,000 plus equity.

You will join a small, high-impact engineering team building an AI-powered global trade platform designed to help importers navigate tariffs and international trade. You'll own features end-to-end, work with founders and customers, and architect data workflows across the full

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of full-stack product engineering experience.
• Experience shipping customer-facing products.
• Startup experience or high-growth environment beneficial.
• Ambiguity in requirements handled well and owned outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Build full-stack product features from concept to production.
• Connect product capabilities with real-world customer data.
• Process and transform trade data from documents, CSVs, APIs and more.
• Model PostgreSQL databases for global trade workflows.
• Shape product direction with founders and leadership.
• Own features end-to-end from requirements to deployment.
• Develop AI-powered workflows on top of the data graph.

Skills

Full-stack product engineering

Customer-facing products

Startup environment

Ambiguity handling

Ownership mentality

AI-powered products

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field

Tools

NestJS

Prisma

MikroORM

GraphQL

Redis

BullMQ

Job description

Recruiting from Scratch is a specialized talent firm dedicated to helping companies build exceptional teams. We partner closely with our clients to deeply understand their needs, then connect them with top-tier candidates who are not only highly skilled but also the right fit for the company’s culture and vision. Our mission is simple: place the best people in the right roles to drive long-term success for both clients and candidates.

https://www.recruitingfromscratch.com/

Title of the Role: Product Engineer

Location - San Francisco, CA (Hybrid) - Hybrid role requiring three days per week in-office in Downtown San Francisco.

Compensation - $185,000 – $230,000 Base + Competitive Early-Stage Equity

Visa - Open to Visa Transfers (OPT, H1B Transfers) + TN, J1, and O-1 Sponsorship

Company Stage - Early Stage – Seed / Approaching Series A

Industry - Artificial Intelligence, Global Trade, Customs Technology, Fintech, Enterprise SaaS, Trade Automation, Agentic AI

About the Company

Our client is building an AI-powered global trade platform designed to help importers navigate the increasingly complex world of tariffs, customs, and international trade.

The company is transforming fragmented trade data, documents, and operational systems into actionable intelligence that helps businesses uncover duty refunds, tariff exemptions, and other cost-saving opportunities.

The company has already reached significant early traction with more than 80 customers in production and strong recent revenue growth, while preparing for its next major funding milestone.

As a Product Engineer, you'll join a small, high-impact engineering team where every engineer has significant influence over product direction, technical architecture, and engineering culture.

This is an opportunity to work directly with founders and customers while building full-stack product experiences, data infrastructure, AI-powered workflows, and systems for a compliance-heavy domain where accuracy and reliability have real-world financial consequences.

What You'll Do

• Build full-stack product features across the platform from initial concept through production deployment
• Work directly with customer data to connect product capabilities with real-world use cases
• Process and transform messy, fragmented trade data from documents, CSVs, APIs, and other sources
• Build systems that convert unstructured and semi-structured trade data into clean, structured, actionable information
• Design and model PostgreSQL databases supporting complex global trade workflows
• Build reliable data models that can evolve as the company's customs-centric data graph expands
• Shape product direction alongside founders and technical leadership
• Work directly with users to understand operational problems and customer requirements
• Push back on product specifications when necessary and help determine the best technical and product approach
• Own features end-to-end from ambiguous requirements through architecture, implementation, deployment, and iteration
• Build customer-facing applications and workflows for importers and trade professionals
• Develop agentic AI workflows on top of the customs-centric data graph
• Build AI-powered systems that help customers identify duty recovery, tariff, and trade opportunities
• Design reliable AI workflows with appropriate safeguards for a compliance-heavy domain
• Build APIs, backend services, frontend experiences, and data workflows across the full product stack
• Integrate external APIs, customer systems, and third-party data sources
• Work with large volumes of documents and structured trade data
• Build systems that maintain accuracy, reliability, transparency, and traceability
• Collaborate closely with founders and the small engineering team on technical strategy
• Operate effectively in an ambiguous environment where requirements are not always fully defined
• Make pragmatic technical decisions balancing product velocity, correctness, and maintainability
• Identify product opportunities based on customer feedback and operational needs
• Improve system performance, reliability, scalability, and user experience
• Help establish engineering practices, technical standards, and product development workflows
• Continuously evolve the platform as the company expands into new trade advisory products

Experience Requirements

• 2–5 years of professional experience in full-stack product engineering
• Experience building and shipping customer-facing products
• Experience working in startup or high-growth environments preferred
• Experience working within strong engineering cultures preferred
• Experience taking ambiguous product requirements through implementation and production
• Experience working directly with customers or end users preferred
• Experience working with complex data or operational workflows
• Strong ownership mentality with demonstrated execution ability
• Strong product mindset and customer orientation
• Comfortable making technical decisions independently
• Comfortable working closely with founders and senior technical leadership
• Ability to operate effectively in a small engineering team
• Strong interest in AI-powered products and modern software development
• Experience with fintech, trade, logistics, compliance, or other complex operational domains preferred

Technical Requirements

• Experience with NestJS or comparable backend frameworks
• Experience with Prisma, MikroORM, or comparable ORM technologies
• Experience building production APIs and backend services
• Experience with GraphQL or comparable API technologies
• Experience building modern customer-facing web applications
• Experience working with Redis or comparable caching/data systems
• Experience with background processing or job queues such as BullMQ preferred
• Experience integrating external APIs and third-party systems
• Experience working with structured and unstructured data
• Experience building data-heavy product workflows
• Experience with AI agents, LLMs, or AI-powered applications preferred
• Experience building agentic workflows preferred
• Strong software architecture and system design skills
• Strong understanding of production reliability and scalability
• Strong debugging and production troubleshooting capabilities
• Ability to reason across frontend, backend, data, AI, infrastructure, and product systems
• Ability to design systems where correctness and reliability are critical
• Ability to learn unfamiliar technical and business domains quickly

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related technical field preferred
• Equivalent practical engineering experience accepted
• Strong computer science and software engineering fundamentals

Soft Skills

• Exceptional technical ownership
• Strong product judgment
• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability
• Strong customer orientation
• Comfortable working directly with founders
• Comfortable working directly with customers and users
• Strong ability to understand complex business workflows
• Comfortable challenging product requirements when appropriate
• High execution velocity
• Strong bias toward shipping
• Strong ability to reason from first principles
• Comfortable making technical decisions independently
• Strong architectural judgment
• Pragmatic approach to technical tradeoffs
• Strong attention to correctness and reliability
• Strong builder mentality
• Comfortable working across multiple technical areas
• Comfortable managing multiple priorities simultaneously
• Strong ownership of production outcomes
• Strong product and business orientation
• Comfortable working three days per week in San Francisco
• Strong willingness to operate in a fast-moving early-stage environment
• Competitive early-stage equity
• Opportunity to join a small, high-impact engineering team
• Significant ownership over product development and technical direction
• Opportunity to build AI-powered global trade infrastructure
• Direct collaboration with founders and technical leadership
• Opportunity to work on complex data and compliance-heavy workflows
• Exposure to agentic AI, customs technology, and enterprise software
• Opportunity to work with real customer data and high-impact operational problems
• Opportunity to shape product architecture and engineering culture
• High-growth environment with significant career and equity upside
• TN, J1, and O-1 sponsorship available

Why Join

• This is an opportunity to join a small, high-impact team building a new category of AI-powered global trade software.
• You'll work directly with founders and customers while owning product features from ambiguous requirements through production, giving you an unusually high level of influence over both what gets built and how it gets built.
• You'll solve challenging problems across full-stack engineering, messy real-world data, AI agents, and compliance-heavy workflows where technical accuracy directly impacts customer outcomes.
• If you enjoy product engineering, building from ambiguity, working closely with customers, solving complex data problems, and operating with high ownership in a fast-moving startup, this role offers exceptional technical and product scope.