Software Engineer (Node.js/React)

Panenco is a boutique software studio in Belgium and Ukraine. We build next-gen B2B SaaS products and enterprise AI solutions, always with an entrepreneurial spirit. We're a small team of the best and brightest, looking for 10x people who love to tackle challenging problems. We give you significant ownership and room to grow, expecting you to take charge and continuously evolve with the latest and greatest in our industry.
 

About the position

We’re looking for software engineers with strong computer science fundamentals and an entrepreneurial edge to build robust products end-to-end on our Node.js and React stack. You’ll work across the full stack – from database schema to UI – joining a dedicated product team alongside some of the best and brightest people in our industry. The balance between front-end and back-end work flexes depending on the project, and we expect you to be comfortable owning features from idea to production.
 

Technologies and required skills

We expect engineers in our team to take on a broad set of responsibilities, always acting in the interest of the product rather than sticking to the boundaries of any specific domain. You have an in-depth grasp of the majority of the following technologies:

• Core Language & Runtime
  • TypeScript: strong typing, generics, modern ES standards
  • Node.js: event loop, async patterns, streams, modules, runtime fundamentals
  • Strong computer science fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, system design
• Back-End
  • NestJS: modular architecture, dependency injection, decorators, guards, interceptors, pipes
  • REST API design: resource modeling, versioning, error handling, idempotency
  • Authentication & authorization: JWT, OAuth/OIDC, session management, RBAC patterns
• Database & Data Layer
  • PostgreSQL: schema design, indexing, query optimization, transactions
  • ORMs: hands-on experience with Drizzle ORM and/or Prisma
  • Data modelling: turning business logic into comprehensible data structures
  • Migrations, schema evolution, data integrity
• Front-End
  • React: function components, hooks, composition patterns, controlled vs derived state, React Server Components (RSC)
  • Typescript: strong typing, generics, modern ES standards
  • Next.js: App Router, Server Components, Server Actions, routing concepts, SSR/SSG patterns
• UI & Styling
  • Design systems and component libraries: shadcn/ui (primary), Radix UI, MUI, Ant, Atlassian UI
  • Styling: modern CSS with Tailwind CSS, CSS Modules, SCSS
  • Responsive layouts and cross-browser compatibility
• Forms & Validation
  • React Hook Form: form state management and validation
  • Zod: schema validation and type inference
• Testing & Quality
  • E2E testing: Playwright or Cypress
  • Understanding of test pyramid: unit, integration, and E2E testing strategies
  • CI integration: test automation in continuous integration pipelines
  • Code quality: focus on readability, maintainability, and reusability
• Build Tools & Module Bundlers
  • Vite (widely used across our projects)
  • Webpack
  • Next.js build system: experience with Next.js build and development tooling
  • Module bundling concepts: understanding of modern bundling approaches
• Error Tracking & Observability
  • Sentry or similar tools for frontend error tracking and monitoring
  • Ability to interpret production errors and improve system reliability
• Security Fundamentals
  • Frontend security: XSS, CSRF, secure handling of authentication tokens
  • Backend security: input validation, SQL injection prevention, secrets handling, rate limiting
  • OWASP Top 10
  • Permissions and authorization patterns
• Web & Browser Fundamentals
  • HTTP/HTTPS, caching, cookies, CORS
  • Event Loop, microtasks vs macrotasks, Web APIs
  • Performance: client-side and server-side performance considerations
  • Accessibility: WCAG awareness, keyboard navigation, screen readers, semantic HTML
• AI-Assisted Development
  • Hands-on experience using AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or similar) in daily development workflow
  • Ability to write effective prompts, review AI-generated code critically, and integrate AI tools into your engineering process without compromising code quality
  • Judgment about when AI output needs verification — recognizing hallucinations, context limits, and over-reliance risks
• Language skills: solid reading and speaking skills in English
   

As a plus

• tRPC: end-to-end type-safe APIs, procedures, routers, middleware
• Turbopack: familiarity with Next.js Turbopack for faster development builds
• Virtualisation: hands-on experience with Docker and similar services
• Cloud: practical experience with GCP, AWS or Azure (serverless principles a bonus)
• CI/CD pipelines: setting up and managing deployment pipelines
• Message queues / background jobs: BullMQ, Redis, or similar
• Information security: an understanding of security standards (SOC 2, ISO 27001)
• React Native: experience with React Native for mobile development
• Basic understanding of working with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic): request/response patterns, streaming, token usage, cost awareness
• Model Context Protocol (MCP): practical experience configuring MCP servers in tools like Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor (e.g. filesystem, GitHub, Slack, or custom servers)
• Building AI-powered product features: experience integrating LLMs into user-facing products (chat interfaces, RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, streaming UIs)
• Prompt engineering: structured approaches to system prompts, few-shot examples, tool use / function calling, evals 
   

Locations

Remote work is our default.
We also have an office in Kyiv, and team members are expected to be available to work onsite there when needed.
 

We offer 
We offer a friendly, dynamic and inspirational working environment with a strong team that celebrates great engineering. During our bi-weekly software engineering labs sessions we share experiences from the various products that we're building. A fair compensation, office snacks and fun afterwork drinks are included of course!

The interview process

The interview process is short (but thorough) and will consist of 3 steps:

1. Technical interview: you present a personal project or one of your prior involvements from end to end, with our team asking targeted questions
2. Pair-Programming Session: you collaborate with one of our engineers on a practical task. We focus on problem-solving approach, communication, code structure, and how you reason about changes in real time.
3. Feedback: you will receive feedback about the technical conversation either in written form or through a call