Founding Senior Software Engineer

Studio 402 is a software studio focused on turning cutting-edge technologies into real, market-ready products and companies. We work across multiple projects in parallel, using a shared TypeScript/Node.js/React platform and an AI-first mindset.

Our values:

• Innovation first: We like to be early on new technologies, not late adopters.
• Ownership mindset: Engineers are product owners, not just ticket-takers.
• Technical excellence: We care about clean architecture, strong documentation, and long-term maintainability.
• Entrepreneurial spirit: We build with an eye toward real business impact and potential exits.
• Rapid adaptation: We move fast, adjust quickly, and learn in public.

The Role:

We are hiring a Founding Senior Software Engineer (senior to staff level) to act as the cross-cutting technical lead across several products in our portfolio.

You will:

• Own and evolve our shared TypeScript/Node.js/React platform.
• Set architecture patterns that other engineers follow.
• Partner directly with the founder on product and technical decisions.
• Stay hands-on: designing systems, writing code, reviewing pull requests, and shipping features.

This is an individual contributor role, not a people manager role, but your decisions will shape how other engineers build and ship.

What You Will Do:

Technical leadership

• Define and maintain architecture patterns across projects in our Node.js/TypeScript/React stack.
• Design scalable, well-documented APIs and backend systems used by multiple products.
• Establish shared libraries, tooling, and conventions so teams can move faster without reinventing the wheel.

• Make clear, documented technical decisions and communicate the reasoning behind them.

   

Hands-on building

• Ship high-quality features end to end: from backend design to React/Next.js implementation where needed.
• Integrate third-party APIs and services, including AI and large language model providers when they add real product value.
• Write clean, testable, maintainable code with a focus on long-term quality, not just short-term hacks.

• Create and maintain technical documentation that other engineers can rely on.

   

Product and ownership

• Work closely with the founder to translate business and product goals into technical strategies.
• Proactively propose improvements to products, architecture, and developer experience.
• Question requirements constructively and offer better solutions, not just point out problems.

• Take true ownership: surface risks early, suggest trade-offs, and follow through to shipped outcomes.

   

Team impact (without being a manager)

• Help other engineers make good architectural and implementation choices.
• Raise the bar on code quality, testing, and documentation through example and thoughtful review.

• Contribute to and refine the studio’s engineering practices, standards, and ownership culture.

   

What We Are Looking For:

Must-haves

• Senior-level experience (or above) building production systems in TypeScript and Node.js.
• Strong experience with modern frontend development using React.
• Proven track record of owning complex features or systems end to end: design, build, launch, iterate.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous environments: you can clarify requirements, propose approaches, and make decisions without needing rigid specifications.
• High ownership mindset: you think in terms of product and business impact, not just tasks completed.
• Strong communication skills: you document decisions, keep stakeholders updated, and communicate risks early.
• Experience designing APIs and backend architectures that serve multiple clients or products.

• Solid understanding of engineering fundamentals: data modeling, caching, performance, observability, testing.

   

AI and agents

• Real interest in AI and agents, with enough experience to integrate large language models or related services into products, for example calling an LLM API, designing prompts, or wiring tools.

• Excitement about using AI to build better products and workflows, even without a research background.

   

Nice-to-haves

• Experience acting as a de facto tech lead or staff-level individual contributor in a startup, studio, or multi-product environment.
• Experience with React Native or mobile development.
• Exposure to building internal platforms or shared component libraries for multiple teams or products.
• Experience with modern DevOps practices such as continuous integration and deployment, cloud infrastructure, and monitoring, sufficient to collaborate effectively with infrastructure-focused teammates.

• Prior work in early-stage companies or studios where you helped define engineering culture and practices.

   

Who You Are

• You are a builder who prefers shipping real things to only discussing them.
• You are energized by ambiguity and open problem spaces, not frustrated by them.
• You care about both the architecture and the user: you think about how your decisions affect the product and the business.
• You are comfortable being accountable: you make decisions, document them, and own the outcomes.
• You prefer lightweight process and clear ownership over heavy process and bureaucracy.

• You are not looking for a pure research role or a pure management role; you want to stay close to the code and the product.

   

How We Work

• Flat structure with direct communication between you, the founder, and the rest of the team.
• Multiple products in parallel, giving you exposure to a variety of problems and domains.
• Documentation and ownership: decisions get written down, and engineers are trusted to act on them.

• Remote-first: we work fully remotely and optimize for written communication and clear expectations.

   

Compensation

We offer a competitive salary and meaningful equity for the right person. Exact details will be discussed directly with candidates and calibrated based on experience and impact.