Staff Software Engineer

ProFound People; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Job summary

ProFound People in Austin, TX seeks a Founding Staff Software Engineer to own the AI-native platform's core product roadmap end to end, from shaping what it is through to shipping, monitoring and iterating on it in production.

This is a founding role, on-site in Austin five days a week, with relocation support for those already based elsewhere. You will work with founders to balance privacy constraints and craft scalable, trustworthy systems.

Qualifications

• No set requirements; emphasis on building end-to-end product from idea to production.
• Ability to ship and iterate in production with strong product judgment.

Responsibilities

• Own core product roadmap from concept to production.
• Design and ship features with privacy-sensitive considerations.
• Collaborate with founders to steer a winning product strategy.

Skills

Product judgment

Full stack engineering

Ownership of product

AI-assisted engineering

Privacy-first architecture

Job description

(Founding) Staff Software Engineer | AI-Native Platform | Austin, TX | Competitive Salary + Equity

I'm working with the creators of an AI-native platform, backed by a well-known venture fund.

We're seeking a hire to own the core product roadmap end to end, from shaping what it is through to shipping, monitoring, and iterating on it in production.

What the role actually involves

There are no requirements yet. That is the point. The questions the team is working through include how to capture what someone is doing without harvesting passwords or API keys alongside the useful signals, how to extract structured meaning from unstructured activity, where the captured data lives and how it stays trustworthy, and how it gets organised so someone would actually want to show it to an employer.

The right engineer will walk in with opinions on how to start breaking this down.

Who they are looking for

• Someone who has built products from zero to one and owned them all the way through. Not just the initial ship but what breaks in production and what gets rebuilt.
• Strong product judgment and the ability to sequence ruthlessly under ambiguity.
• Genuinely full stack. Confident enough to challenge founders with well-reasoned opinions.
• Mature AI-assisted engineering with real judgment about when to trust the output.
• Experience with privacy-sensitive or local-first architecture is a strong plus given the nature of what they are building.

This is not right for you if

• You have only executed well-defined work inside large teams.
• You need a spec before you can start.
• You are not open to fully on-site in Austin five days a week.

The details

Full benefits. Relocation covered from other US states or internationally.

US work rights required. TN and E-3 visas can be sponsored for Canadian, Mexican, and Australian nationals or, any H1B Transfer applicants - we're able to chat!