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