Founding Software Engineer

This role is for one of our portfolio companies, not internally at Airtree. Your application will be reviewed by the founder, not an Airtree employee.

Airtree has recently invested in a stealth-mode startup that's redefining how business leaders activate, nurture, and grow their most valuable asset: relationships. This company has built an MVP and is ready to bring on its first engineering hire - a true founding engineer who will help shape the product, the culture, and the technical direction from day one. This is a rare ground-floor opportunity to join three accomplished founders and build something with massive potential and strong early backing.

Role Overview

As the Founding Engineer, you'll work side-by-side with the founding team to scale an early product into a category-defining platform. You'll own critical technical decisions, set the engineering standards, and establish the foundations of a world-class product and engineering organisation.

Why Now

• Early (stealth technically). Fast approaching a function v.1. and our next step is scaling our engineering brain of this product
• Raised A$1.3m from top funds (Airtree, TEN13) and exceptional angels (top founders, execs, investors, recruiters) who have built iconic companies
• You will be the first engineering hire, alongside 3 co-founders (2x of which are technical)

What You'll Own

• You'll build core product features end-to-end: from spec to live-in-prod
• You'll help architect backend (Node.js, SST, LLM partitioning + embedding pipelines)
• You'll make frontend feel world-class (React + Tailwind + GSAP animation fun)
• You'll go deep on integrations (Meta, LinkedIn, note taking apps)
• You'll shape technical direction, hiring standards, and product culture

Who We're Looking For

This is for someone who's world-class, someone who built early before - or really wants to.

Preference:

• You've shipped something real end-to-end
• You care about craft: both how things work and how they feel
• You're comfortable in early-stage ambiguity, can take initiative in refining spec
• You think about customer and product. Not just code
• You want responsibility, speed, and impact
• You're high agency, high humility, and highly collaborative
• You're curious about how humans build enduring networks

Bonus if:

• 3+ years of experience across full stack (Typescript, Node.js preferred)
• You've worked on premium prosumer apps before, or any productivity tools, messaging/email infra, AI/ML tools
• You've seen and been part of building scalable infra

The Stack (so far):

• Frontend: Typescript, React
• Backend: Typescript, NextJs
• Infra: Vercel, SST, AWS
• Integrations: Gmail, Outlook

What We Can Offer:

• A true founding seat - shaping engineering from ground up
• Competitive [+A$150k] Salary + meaningful equity
• Directly working with high velocity founding team obsessed with craft
• High exposure to building a premium prosumer product for top tier investors/operators
• Mentorship & community