Founding Principle Architect

Overview

Hybrid
Depends on Experience
Full Time

Skills

React
Node.js
JavaScript/TypeScript
DevOps Workflows
scaling production-grade web applications
early-stage startup
hyper growth experience
GCP
CI/CD
security
mentor engineers
scalability
performance
reliability

Job Details

Work Location details;
NYC Preferred: 4 days/week in office
San Francisco - 1 week/month travel to NYC

Position Summary

Client is seeking a Lead Founding Engineer & Architect to own full-stack system design and implementation. In this senior-level role, you'll drive backend and infrastructure development, ship end-to-end product features, and help build out the early engineering team. You'll work closely with the founders to shape the product roadmap, technical stack, and company culture from the ground up.


Key Responsibilities

  • Lead the design and development of application infrastructure and system integrations

  • Drive backend and infrastructure work using Google Cloud Platform and modern DevOps tooling

  • Build full-stack features in collaboration with legal experts and company leadership

  • Establish and maintain engineering best practices (CI/CD, code reviews, security standards)

  • Mentor junior and mid-level engineers as the team expands

  • Contribute to overall product direction and strategic planning

  • Make key architectural decisions to ensure scalability, performance, and system reliability


Required Qualifications

  • 5 10 years of professional software engineering experience

  • Demonstrated ability to lead projects or manage technical contributors

  • Deep expertise in React, Node.js, and TypeScript/JavaScript

  • Proven success designing and scaling production-grade systems

  • Familiarity with DevOps and cloud infrastructure workflows

  • Strong product ownership mindset and comfort with ambiguity

  • Clear, confident communication skills


Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience at an early-stage startup or during hyper-growth phases

  • Background in legal tech or similarly regulated industries

  • Familiarity with enterprise-grade security and compliance standards (e.g., OAuth, SOC 2, GDPR)


Employers have access to artificial intelligence language tools (“AI”) that help generate and enhance job descriptions and AI may have been used to create this description. The position description has been reviewed for accuracy and Dice believes it to correctly reflect the job opportunity.

About SmartTech Staffing Partners