Junior Software Engineer

About the Role

Join the founding engineering team of an AI-native company in its early stages, preparing for its Y Combinator application. This role is for a junior software engineer who can build and scale the product. The "junior" designation refers to career stage, with expectations for strong technical fundamentals, initiative, and the ability to ship working software. Personal projects, open-source contributions, internships, freelance work, and previous startup experience are all considered.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and ship features for the core product, from problem understanding through implementation, testing, and release.
• Develop APIs, backend services, database integrations, and user-facing functionality.
• Integrate AI models and third-party services, assessing their reliability.
• Investigate bugs, improve performance, and help the product handle growing usage.
• Write clear, maintainable code and use tests to reduce risk.
• Work directly with founders and the engineering team on technical decisions.
• Communicate progress, flag blockers, and follow through without constant supervision.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Evidence of building working software and ability to explain contributions, technical choices, and improvements.
• Strong fundamentals in APIs, databases, debugging, version control, and understanding of web application architecture.
• Depth in at least one language or framework.
• Independent problem-solving skills, including breaking down unfamiliar problems, investigating options, and knowing when to ask for help.
• Fast, thoughtful learning with the ability to apply feedback.
• Practical judgment, balancing code quality with the need to ship.
• Clear communication in English for collaboration.
• Consistent part-time commitment with a reliable delivery schedule.
• If using AI coding tools, ability to review, debug, and explain generated code.

A Computer Science degree is welcome but not required. The quality of work and thinking are prioritized over credentials.

Useful, but not required

• Experience building with LLM APIs or other AI tools.
• Experience deploying and maintaining an application used by others.
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure, automated deployments, monitoring, or application security.
• Previous work in a small startup team.

Why join

• Join the founding engineering team and contribute directly to the core product.
• Work closely with founders to understand product and technical decision-making.
• Take ownership of meaningful work early in your career.
• Help shape the engineering foundations of a growing AI-native company.
• Suitable for those who enjoy early-stage work, adapting to changing priorities, and bringing ideas while executing them.