Founding Principal Engineer

Continuum Resource Network • New York, NY

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

A venture-backed healthcare technology company is seeking a hands-on, product-minded Founding Principal Engineer to establish the technical foundation for a pediatric mental health platform. Following a Series B funding round, the company is transitioning from an offshore engineering team to a small in-house organization. The engineer will work directly with the CEO, own critical architecture and product decisions, and help build the engineering team over the next 6–12 months.

The role combines hands-on production engineering with technical leadership in an early-stage, regulated environment. The engineer will shape systems across telehealth, electronic health records, patient dashboards, and AI-powered capabilities, while balancing speed, scalability, reliability, security, and maintainability. The position requires a hybrid schedule of three days per week in the company's Union Square, New York City office.

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, owning systems from architecture through production.
• Experience building software in regulated environments such as healthcare or fintech, with an understanding of security, privacy, and compliance requirements.
• Strong product instincts and the 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 in a hybrid arrangement 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 write production code for complex 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 build a high-caliber in-house engineering team over the next 6–12 months.
• Make pragmatic technical decisions balancing speed, scalability, reliability, security, and maintainability.
• Take end-to-end ownership of features and systems, from understanding user needs through deployment and iteration.

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 for a growing technology platform.
• Foundational role in building the company's in-house engineering organization.
• Mission-driven work contributing to technology designed to improve access to pediatric mental health care.
• Opportunity to drive practical adoption of AI across product development and engineering.

What This Job Offers

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