Founding Software Engineer

Zigtale•Lancaster, PA

7d•Remote

About The Position

ZigTale is hiring its first full-time engineer to build and improve its TypeScript and React web app, which helps children turn their drawings, voices, and ideas into evolving stories. The product is currently in beta, used by selected families on phones. The role involves working remotely at least five days a week and attending weekly in-person meetings at a company-designated location. The engineer will work closely with an advisor who built the current platform and will manage the role, set quality expectations, and review work. ZigTale’s founders work remotely from outside Lancaster. The engineer will own work end to end, from implementation through testing and release, and will help maintain the quality, safety, and usability of the product. The role emphasizes careful use of AI models and coding agents, practical testing on real devices, protection of children’s data, and responsiveness to feedback from beta families. Compensation is $70,000 per year, plus an equity grant subject to board approval.

Requirements

Experience building with frontier AI models and coding agents in regular work, with examples of work built using them.
Evidence of having shipped software used by real people, such as a production web app, client project, or side project with real users.
Solid engineering and DevOps fundamentals, including TypeScript, React, SQL databases, APIs, and production debugging.
Hands-on experience using at least one image, video, or voice model in a project.
Ability to critically review AI output, inspect diffs, write tests, and catch incorrect model output.
Strong attention to detail and follow-through in resolving visual and written product issues.
Clear written communication, including the ability to explain changes, rationale, and remaining risks.
Full-time availability, with ZigTale as the candidate's only full-time job.
Ability to work remotely at least five days a week and attend weekly in-person meetings at a company-designated location.

Nice To Haves

Experience building or researching products for children, families, or education, including user research with children and parents.
Working knowledge of children's privacy, COPPA, and privacy-by-design.
Experience shipping a progressive web app or mobile app and working through iOS Safari issues.
Experience building evaluations to compare AI models on quality, speed, and cost.
Experience with cloud hosting, Postgres, and CI pipelines.
A feel for illustration, animation, voice, or storytelling.

Responsibilities

Build and ship features and fixes end to end in the TypeScript and React web app, from ticket through tested staging and production releases.
Own the quality of AI features, including prompts, model selection, speed, cost, and handling provider failures.
Test on real phones and tablets, including iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, and preserve screenshot evidence before completing work.
Protect children's data through privacy-first design, parental consent, content moderation, and COPPA-minded practices.
Run multiple AI coding agents, critically review their output, and keep tests and release checks passing.
Review beta-family feedback, identify product friction, and address it quickly.
Document learnings in runbooks and incident notes, and explain the reasoning behind decisions.
Attend weekly in-person meetings at a company-designated location while working remotely at least five days a week.