Founding Principal Architect

Overview

Hybrid
$150,000 - $250,000
Full Time
10% Travel

Skills

Must have very strong React
Node.js
JavaScript
TypeScript
Postgres
GCP
CI/CD
roadmap planning
product strategy
software engineer
DevOps workflows
Early-stage startup or hyper-growth experience
regulated industries
legal tech a plus

Job Details

Role summary
Hiring a Lead Founding Engineer & Architect to own system design and implementation across the full stack. Responsible for backend and infrastructure development, delivering product features end-to-end, and helping recruit and mentor early engineers. Collaborates closely with the founders to shape product direction and company culture.

Why join

  • Founding opportunity to help shape product, team, and engineering culture
  • Work directly with experienced, legal-focused engineering founders
  • Early leadership role with potential to grow into Head of SWE or CTO
  • Backed by top-tier VCs
  • High ownership, high impact role
  • Equity and competitive compensation package

Tech environment

  • Languages: JavaScript, TypeScript
  • Tools/Frameworks: Node.js, React
  • Database: Postgres
  • Cloud: Google Cloud Platform
  • Focus: Building scalable, production-grade web applications

Responsibilities

  • Lead architecture and development of application infrastructure and integrations
  • Drive backend and infrastructure work using Google Cloud Platform and related tools
  • Build full-stack product features in collaboration with founders and legal experts
  • Define and enforce engineering best practices (CI/CD, security, reviews)
  • Mentor junior and mid-level engineers as the team grows
  • Contribute to product strategy and roadmap planning
  • Make key technical decisions around scalability, performance, and reliability

Must-have qualifications

  • 5 10 years of professional software engineering experience
  • Experience leading end-to-end projects and/or managing developers
  • Deep expertise in React, Node.js, JavaScript/TypeScript
  • Proven track record designing complex application and infrastructure systems
  • Familiarity with DevOps workflows
  • Experience scaling production-grade web applications
  • Strong ownership mindset and ability to work through ambiguity
  • Excellent communication skills

Preferred qualifications

  • Early-stage startup or hyper-growth experience
  • Experience in legal tech or other regulated industries
  • Familiarity with enterprise security/compliance (OAuth, SOC 2, GDPR)
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About SmartTech Staffing Partners