Software Engineer

Start With Level, Inc.; New York, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health insurance

Unlimited PTO

New equipment

Team offsites

Foundational role

Job summary

Start With Level, Inc. is building a distributed engineering team in New York City and beyond. We are seeking a Software Engineer who can own projects end-to-end across the stack, including AI/LLM-driven workflows and core product features.

You will work on infrastructure, integrations, and customer-facing engagements to shape our product and culture for years to come. The role offers opportunities across the stack, a fast-paced startup environment, and the chance to work with AI-driven

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience in fast-moving or startup environments.
• Ability to design systems and not only implement them.
• Generalist with the ability to own projects end-to-end across the stack.
• Pragmatic, shipping-focused while maintaining quality.
• Excellent communication to articulate tradeoffs clearly.
• Comfort with ambiguity and ownership mentality.

Responsibilities

• Build features across the stack including backend services, frontend interfaces, integrations, agents and infrastructure.
• Design and implement AI/LLM-driven workflows as part of our automation platform.
• Translate ambiguous requirements into working software.
• Balance speed with technical rigor to optimize learning and durability.
• Help define and evolve engineering practices and culture.
• Collaborate with the founding team and customers to shape product direction.

Skills

7+ years exp

System design

Generalist

Pragmatic

Communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Tools

AWS

Lambda

ECS

Python

FastAPI

PostgreSQL

DynamoDB

S3

React/Next.js

TypeScript

Job description

About us

We're a fast-growing startup rethinking how back-office work gets done in financial services. Our first product helps automotive lenders resolve insurance claims more effectively, delivering better outcomes for both lenders and consumers through automation and AI. Small improvements can unlock significant value for our customers. Along the way, we've helped consumers avoid millions in debt.

Our work spans a wide range of engineering challenges - from building core application features and integrations, to designing reliable infrastructure, to creating AI/LLM-driven workflows that automate complex processes.

We're an early stage venture-backed startup and scaling quickly. We're scrappy, intentional, and focused on solving real problems for our customers. We bias toward shipping, learning fast, and building solutions that work in the real world.

Our headquarters is in New York City, and our team is distributed.

We're backed by leading investors including 81 Collection, Better Tomorrow Ventures andCapitalOneVentures.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/startwithlevel/

The role

We're looking for aSoftware Engineerto join our team. This is a generalist role and you are encouraged to apply no matter your expertise. We have opportunities across the stack. You can expect to own projects end-to-end, have customer facing engagements, and make foundational technical decisions that will shape our product and culture for years to come.

Some of your work will involve AI/LLM-based systems, but just as much will involve building the surrounding product and infrastructure that makes those systems valuable to our customers. If you enjoy tackling different kinds of problems, moving quickly, and taking ownership, this role is for you.

What you'll do

• Build features across the stack based on your strengths and the business's highest priorities: backend services, frontend interfaces, integrations, agents and infrastructure.


• Design and implement AI/LLM-driven workflows as part of our automation platform.


• Translate ambiguous requirements into clear, functioning software.


• Balance speed with technical rigor, knowing when to optimize for learning and when to invest in durability.


• Help define and evolve our engineering practices and technical culture.


• Collaborate closely with the founding team and customers to shape product direction.

What we're looking for

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, ideally with exposure to fast-moving or startup environments.


• Strong technical depth: you can design systems, not just implement them.


• A generalist mindset, with the ability and confidence to work across multiple parts of the stack.


• Pragmatism: you can ship quickly without sacrificing critical quality.


• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical tradeoffs clearly.


• Comfort with ambiguity, and a bias toward ownership and action.

Bonus points for:

• Experience working with LLMs or building AI-driven applications.


• Background in fintech, insurance, or workflow-heavy enterprise products.


• Prior experience as an early-stage engineer or founder


• Contributions to open-source or research projects.

Stack:

• Cloud & Infrastructure AWS
  
  
  
  • AWS Lambda
  
  
  • Amazon ECS
  
  
  
  


• Backend
  
  
  
  • Python
  
  
  • FastAPI
  
  
  
  


• Databases & Storage
  
  
  
  • Amazon DynamoDB
  
  
  • PostgreSQL
  
  
  • S3
  
  
  
  


• Frontend
  
  
  
  • React/Nextjs
  
  
  • Typescript
  
  
  
  

Our values

• Customer-first- we focus on solving real customer problems.


• Bias to action- more doing and fast learning help us deliver the right solutions.


• Ownership- no silos, no excuses: we all take responsibility.


• Strong opinions, open minds- clear points of view, constructive debate, open to better ideas, learning from each other

Compensation & benefits

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity.


• Health, dental, and vision insurance.


• Unlimited PTO and flexible hours.


• New equipment to support your best work.


• Regular offsites and team travel budget to get together in person


• The opportunity to play a foundational role in shaping both the product and the company.

HQ in NYC, distributed team.