Senior Software Engineer

Stealth Startup; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Stealth Startup in New York, NY is hiring founding engineers to join as senior individual contributors and help build the core product and infrastructure from the ground up. This deeply hands-on role focuses on designing systems, writing code, shipping features, and solving difficult technical problems with a small, collaborative team.

As an early engineering hire, you’ll influence architecture, development practices, and product direction, working directly with product, design, research, and

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Hands-on contributor building and shipping production software.
• Experience from zero to one or in early-stage environments.
• Strong backend or full-stack capabilities.
• Experience designing scalable systems, APIs, and data architectures.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and ship core product experiences from zero to one.
• Own complex architectural and infrastructure projects from architecture to production.
• Write high-quality, scalable code across the stack.
• Collaborate with product and design to influence what gets built.

Skills

5+ yrs Eng

Backend or Full-Stack

Zero-to-One

Distributed Systems

APIs & Data

Ownership & Communication

Job description

We’re partnering with an ambitious, early-stage technology company operating in stealth mode, founded by a second-time entrepreneur whose previous company was acquired for $2.5B.

Over the past two years, they've assembled a world-class team of entrepreneurs, product builders, engineers, and research scientists from institutions including Princeton, MIT, NYU, HBO, Amazon, and Pinterest. Through extensive interdisciplinary research and collaboration with dozens of academic experts, we've moved from concept to product development and are now entering a critical phase of building and launching our first experiences.

This is an opportunity to help define the future of the internet from the ground up.

The Role

We’re looking for exceptional Founding Engineers to join as a senior individual contributor and help build the company's core product and technical infrastructure from the ground up.

This is a deeply hands-on engineering role. You'll spend the majority of your time designing systems, writing code, shipping products, and solving difficult technical problems alongside a small, highly collaborative team.

As an early engineering hire, you'll have significant influence over architecture, technical decisions, development practices, and product direction. You'll work directly with product, design, research, and company leadership to turn ambitious ideas into scalable, production-ready technology.

This is an individual contributor opportunity, not a people management role. We're looking for someone who wants to remain close to the technology while having the ownership, autonomy, and influence of a founding team member.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.


• Strong track record as a hands-on individual contributor building and shipping production software.


• Experience building products from zero to one or working in early-stage environments.


• Strong backend or full-stack engineering capabilities.


• Experience designing scalable systems, APIs, and data architectures.


• Ability to independently take ambiguous problems and drive them through implementation.


• Strong product instincts and an interest in understanding the user behind the technology.


• Comfortable making technical decisions without perfect information.


• High level of ownership and willingness to work across traditional engineering boundaries.


• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate with technical and non-technical teams.

Especially Relevant Experience

We’d be particularly excited about engineers who have worked on:

• Consumer-facing products at scale


• Complex, data-intensive applications


• Machine learning or AI-powered product experiences


• Distributed systems and scalable backend infrastructure


• Real-time systems


• Social, network, marketplace, or collaboration products


• Web technologies and infrastructure


• Developer platforms or infrastructure


• Early-stage products where engineers worked closely with users and product teams

You do not need experience across all of these areas. We care more about technical depth, curiosity, and your ability to learn and build in unfamiliar territory.

What Makes This Different

• This isn't a role where you'll inherit a mature codebase, narrow backlog, or predetermined technical roadmap.


• You'll join while foundational decisions are still being made, with the opportunity to influence architecture, prototype new approaches, challenge assumptions, and build technology that could become central to the company's long-term success.


• The team operates with the speed and ownership of an early-stage startup while benefiting from the experience and perspective of a proven entrepreneur.


• We're looking for engineers who enjoy ambiguity, think independently, and are motivated by the opportunity to build something entirely new.

Why Join?

• True zero-to-one engineering: Build foundational technology while the product and architecture are still taking shape.


• Stay technical: Grow your impact without having to move into people management.


• Founding-level ownership: Have a meaningful voice in architecture, product decisions, and engineering culture.


• Exceptional team: Collaborate with experienced entrepreneurs, engineers, product builders, and researchers.


• Ambitious technical challenges: Work on complex problems across data, infrastructure, intelligent systems, and consumer technology.


• Experienced founder: Work directly with a second-time entrepreneur whose previous company was acquired for $2.5B.


• Early-stage impact: Join at a pivotal stage where your technical decisions and contributions will have a lasting influence on the company.

What you’ll do

• Design, build, and ship core product experiences from zero to one.


• Own complex technical projects from initial architecture through production.


• Write high-quality, scalable, and maintainable code across the stack.


• Make foundational architectural and infrastructure decisions that will shape the platform as it scales.


• Build backend services, APIs, data systems, and user-facing functionality.


• Rapidly prototype new concepts and turn successful experiments into production-ready systems.


• Collaborate closely with product and design to influence what gets built, not simply execute against requirements.


• Translate emerging ideas, research, and technical concepts into functional products.


• Contribute to sophisticated systems involving data, intelligent automation, and emerging technologies.


• Establish engineering standards and technical best practices as the codebase and team grow.


• Evaluate new technologies and make pragmatic build-versus-buy decisions.


• Solve challenging technical problems across performance, scalability, reliability, and developer experience.


• Help attract and mentor exceptional engineering talent while remaining a hands-on individual contributor.

Why this role matters

You'll likely thrive in this environment if you're a builder at heart. You enjoy writing code, solving technically difficult problems, and seeing something you built reach real users.

You're comfortable when the answer isn't obvious. You challenge assumptions, move quickly without sacrificing thoughtful engineering, and care about the product as much as the underlying technology.

Most importantly, you want to remain an exceptional individual contributor while having the scope, ownership, and influence typically associated with an early founding team.