54421291103 - Founding Engineer
Activate Talent
Posted: January 27, 2026
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Quick Summary
Design and build a modern, scalable web platform from the ground up, collaborating with product, design, and leadership to shape engineering standards, system architecture, and long-term technical direction.
Job Description
About the Role
We are looking for a Founding Engineer to help design and build a modern, scalable web platform from the ground up. This is a hands-on, high-impact role where you will work across the full product lifecycle — from architecture and development to deployment and ongoing optimization.
You’ll collaborate closely with product, design, and leadership while helping shape engineering standards, system architecture, and long-term technical direction. This role is ideal for an engineer who thrives in fast-moving environments, enjoys end-to-end ownership, and values strong engineering fundamentals.
What You’ll Work With
Current Stack
• Backend: Node.js (NestJS / Express), Postgres
• Frontend: React, TypeScript
• Infrastructure: AWS (EC2/ECS/Lambda, RDS, S3, CloudFront, IAM)
Key Responsibilities
Backend Engineering
• Design, build, and maintain scalable RESTful APIs using NestJS or Express
• Contribute to future tech stack decisions and overall engineering direction
• Architect efficient Postgres schemas, write optimized queries, and manage migrations
• Implement authentication & authorization systems (JWT, sessions, OAuth)
• Build integrations with third-party APIs and external services
• Develop integrations with AWS-hosted services and internal tooling
• Write automated tests across service, integration, and API layers
• Implement logging, monitoring, and metrics for production reliability
• Apply best practices in security, performance, and secrets management
Frontend Engineering
• Build responsive, high-performance UIs using React and TypeScript
• Work with design systems or component libraries to deliver polished interfaces
• Integrate frontend applications with backend APIs using clean state management
• Ensure strong UX, accessibility, and cross-browser compatibility
Collaboration & Technical Leadership
• Partner with product managers to clarify requirements and propose scalable solutions
• Collaborate with designers to translate wireframes into functional experiences
• Participate in code reviews and help raise engineering standards
• Document architectural decisions and contribute to technical roadmapping
Requirements:
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong proficiency in Node.js (NestJS/Express), Python, or Go
• Deep experience with Postgres (schema design, migrations, performance optimization)
• Hands-on experience with AWS infrastructure (EC2/ECS/Lambda, RDS, S3, CloudFront, IAM)
• Proven experience building scalable APIs and distributed systems
• Strong understanding of relational database design
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, CircleCI, or similar)
• Strong debugging skills and a methodical, systems-thinking approach
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain technical decisions clearly
Nice to Have
• Experience with GraphQL or tRPC
• Infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, CDK, Serverless Framework)
• Caching layers such as Redis or edge caching with CloudFront
• Monitoring and observability tools (Datadog, CloudWatch, Sentry)
• Experience with multi-tenant architectures or high-traffic SaaS platforms
• Performance optimization across both frontend and backend
• Background in data-heavy or analytics-driven systems