Overview
Skills
Job Details
About the Company
We are an early-stage consumer mobile startup building a relationship-driven product that prioritizes intent, signal quality, and long-term outcomes over shallow engagement. The platform incorporates AI where it meaningfully improves decision-making, filtering, and user experience, not as a novelty layer.
Role Overview
We are looking for a senior engineer to own the technical foundation of a consumer mobile application with AI-assisted features. This is a hands-on builder role. You will work directly with the founder to implement core product functionality, design scalable systems, and integrate AI components thoughtfully into the product.
You should be comfortable building end-to-end systems, making early architectural decisions, and using AI as a tool, not a crutch.
Core Responsibilities
Build and maintain the core mobile application
Design and implement backend services and APIs
Architect data models and pipelines that support AI-driven features
Integrate AI components for filtering, ranking, matching, or decision support
Evaluate tradeoffs between in-house models, third-party APIs, and hybrid approaches
Ensure performance, reliability, and data integrity
Implement authentication, payments, and user data flows
Work closely with the founder on feasibility, sequencing, and constraints
Establish engineering standards suitable for an early-stage product
Technical Profile
Strong experience building consumer mobile apps (iOS, Android, or cross-platform)
Solid backend experience with APIs, databases, and cloud infrastructure
Practical experience integrating AI or ML into production systems
Familiarity with LLMs, embeddings, ranking systems, or recommendation logic
Experience designing systems that evolve without constant rewrites
Understanding of privacy, security, and ethical considerations around user data
Ability to debug real production issues across the stack
What We re Looking For
Senior-level engineering judgment
Comfort working with ambiguity and incomplete specs
Product-aware mindset with willingness to challenge ideas that add noise
Ability to explain technical tradeoffs clearly
Preference for simple, maintainable systems over clever ones
Nice to Have
Early-stage or founding engineer experience
Experience with AI-driven consumer products
Exposure to subscription models, payments, or identity systems
Interest in behavioral signals, incentives, and long-term user outcomes
Why This Role
Ownership of the technical and AI foundation
Direct collaboration with the founder
Influence over both architecture and product quality
Flexible engagement model, full-time, contract, or hybrid
Please be based in the US, ideally around NYC.