Founding Engineer

Rockstar • New York, NY

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Rockstar is recruiting for a mobile-first digital product studio that turns ideas into extraordinary experiences. They are a team of dynamic and savvy professionals who know how to create killer digital products. Our lean structure and remote team mean we can move fast while still delivering top-notch technology and design.

The Problem
Freight brokers are the backbone of a $600B industry. They're the person a shipper trusts to move their goods. But the technology available to them was built for large brokerages with IT departments, not for independent operators running $2M–$50M books of business out of a home office.

These brokers are drowning in manual work: quoting loads by gut feel instead of data, making dozens of carrier phone calls per shipment, toggling between five tabs to track a single load. The best ones succeed despite their tools, not because of them.

AI changes this. It doesn't replace the broker — it gives them leverage that lets them cover more loads, win more freight, and run at higher margins.

The Role
The client is looking for a Founding Engineer to own how they build software. For a person with the right background, they are open to this becoming the team lead as the team is built further.

The candidate will be one of the first hires on a small, senior team. They will partner with the Product Lead to define what is built and why, determine how to best build it, and ship. They will collaborate with product on every meaningful decision and have a real seat at the table on the direction of the business.

The client needs someone who will sit with their brokers, see how they work, and turn that understanding into software that actually changes how they operate. They are building a comprehensive system that lets their freight brokers operate more effectively than any in the industry.

Requirements

• Ships products end-to-end. Frontend, backend, deployment. Has taken something from idea to production and iterated on it with real users.
• Builds with AI. Has worked with LLMs, built agentic workflows, or integrated AI into products. Understands what these models are good at and where they fall apart.
• Moves fast and makes good tradeoffs. Knows when to write clean, tested code and when to ship a prototype in an afternoon to test an idea with a real user.
• Enjoys ambiguity. There is no big roadmap or design team. Will help shape what to build, alongside product, as much as how to build it.
• Wants to be close to the business. This is not a role where someone codes in isolation. The candidate will understand freight margins, carrier relationships, and what makes a good broker great. The best product ideas will come from that understanding.
• AI-native. Uses AI tools in their own daily work and sees opportunities to automate or improve processes with them.
• Ownership orientation. Treats the business like it's their own. Does not wait to be told what to do.
• Founding or early engineer at a startup
• Engineer who has owned a product surface end-to-end with real users
• Operator-builder who has shipped internal tools that meaningfully changed how a business runs

Nice To Haves

• Logistics or supply chain experience is a plus, not a requirement

Responsibilities

• Own the AI stack for freight. Be the technical owner of how AI is applied across carrier sales automation, quoting, and email triage and routing. Partner with the Head of Product on what to build, what to buy, and how to integrate it.
• Build fraud prevention systems. There are teams around the world working to steal loads via dozens of fraud vectors – the candidate will build systems to catch and mitigate theft and fraud.
• Deeply embed with the people who use what is built. Join broker calls, watch them work, and identify how to make them more effective. The feedback loop is measured in hours, not sprints.
• Set the technical foundation. Architecture decisions, deployment, tooling, CI/CD. The candidate is building the engineering culture from the ground up, and the choices made now will shape how the team works for years.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed