Founding Principal Engineer

Continuum Resource Network • New York, NY

7d • $200,000 - $250,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Founding Principal Engineer will help shape a pediatric mental health platform and establish the technical foundation for its next stage of growth. The role is intended for a hands-on, product-minded technical leader who works directly with the CEO, owns critical product architecture, and makes independent technical and product decisions in a regulated industry.

Following a recent Series B funding round, the company is transitioning from an offshore engineering team to a small in-house engineering organization. The engineer will write production code, guide the transition, establish engineering standards, and help build the team over the next 6–12 months. The platform spans telehealth, electronic health records, patient dashboards, and AI-powered capabilities.

This is a hybrid role requiring three days per week in the company's Union Square, New York City office. The position offers a base salary of $200,000–$250,000 per year and an equity opportunity of 0.2%–0.4%.

Requirements

• 6–15 years of professional full-stack engineering experience.
• Recent experience as a founding engineer or one of the first five engineers at a venture-backed startup; Big Tech experience is welcome when combined with early-stage startup experience.
• Strong hands-on experience building and shipping production applications using TypeScript, Node.js, React, and AWS.
• Experience operating at the Staff or Principal individual-contributor level, with ownership of systems from architecture through production.
• Experience building software in regulated environments, such as healthcare or fintech, and understanding of security, privacy, and compliance requirements.
• Strong product instincts and ability to make thoughtful UX, feature, and technical decisions without detailed specifications.
• Ability to work independently, navigate ambiguity, and deliver high-quality solutions in an early-stage environment.
• Genuine interest in improving pediatric mental health care and ability to articulate why the mission is meaningful.
• An active GitHub profile or personal project portfolio demonstrating engineering skills and technical depth.
• Ability to work hybrid, three days per week in the company's Union Square, New York City office.

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading or managing offshore and distributed engineering teams.
• Hands-on experience implementing AI or large language model capabilities in production systems.
• Experience integrating telehealth platforms, electronic health records, patient-facing applications, or other healthcare technology systems.
• Familiarity with HIPAA and healthcare data privacy requirements.
• Experience establishing engineering processes, coding standards, testing practices, and deployment workflows from the ground up.
• Experience scaling engineering teams and transitioning from outsourced development to an in-house organization.
• Experience working closely with executive leadership to influence product strategy and technical direction.

Responsibilities

• Own technical architecture and implementation, writing production code on challenging problems and designing and maintaining systems across telehealth, electronic health records, patient dashboards, and AI-powered capabilities.
• Partner directly with the CEO to translate clinical, growth, and operational needs into technical solutions and make independent product decisions.
• Guide the transition from the offshore engineering team and establish engineering standards, code review processes, and quality practices.
• Identify and implement opportunities to use AI to accelerate development and enhance product capabilities.
• Help establish a high-caliber in-house engineering team over the next 6–12 months.
• Balance speed, scalability, reliability, security, and maintainability when making technical decisions.
• Take end-to-end ownership of features and systems, from understanding user needs through deployment and iteration.
• Help shape company-wide technical strategy, architecture, engineering standards, and development practices.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary of $200,000–$250,000 per year.
• Equity opportunity of 0.2%–0.4%.
• Direct collaboration with the CEO and opportunity to shape company-wide technical strategy.
• Technical ownership of architecture, engineering standards, and development practices.
• Foundational role in building the in-house engineering organization.
• Mission-driven work to improve access to pediatric mental health care.
• Opportunity to drive practical AI adoption across product development and engineering.

What This Job Offers

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