Full Stack Engineer (Full-Time)

Contrarian Thinking • Austin, TX

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Contrarian Thinking is seeking its first in-house engineer to build the infrastructure layer for modern entrepreneurs. This role requires a systems-thinker who can take ownership and autonomy, running with high responsibility. The engineer will build hands-on across the full stack, including React, TypeScript, and Tailwind on the front end, Laravel on the back end, and cloud and CI/CD for deployment. This individual will also serve as the in-house anchor for a distributed engineering team, reviewing their work, setting standards, and unblocking them. The goal is to translate leadership's direction into actionable work, fix issues proactively, and improve the codebase, acting as a force multiplier for the team.

Requirements

• Ideally 8+ years building and shipping full-stack web applications in production
• You think in systems, not tickets: you see how the whole thing fits together and where it will break
• High ownership and high autonomy: you don't need a spec or hand-holding to move
• Strong with React, TypeScript, and modern frontend tooling (Tailwind, React Query or similar)
• Solid back-end experience in Laravel, or a comparable framework you can translate from quickly
• You can drop into an unfamiliar or monolithic codebase, find your way around, and refactor, test, and improve it
• Strong with RESTful APIs and the architecture that connects a React front end to a back end
• TDD and automated testing are part of how you work
• You can set technical standards and raise the level of the engineers around you
• Comfortable with cloud services, CI/CD, and agentic coding tools
• You care about outcomes: live product, real usage, systems that don't fall over

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Moodle
• You've been the first or one of the first engineers somewhere and shaped how the team built
• Built and launched something 0 to 1
• Set architecture or standards that other engineers followed
• Comfortable across frontend and backend, not just one side
• Strong OOP and functional programming fundamentals, with a real sense of the tradeoffs
• Familiar with domain-driven design (DDD) and service-oriented architecture (SOA)
• Reviewed and leveled up other engineers' work, including across time zones
• Startup, solo builder, or high-ownership environment

Responsibilities

• Own full-stack development end-to-end: React, TypeScript, and Tailwind on the front end, Laravel on the back end, and the cloud and CI/CD that ship it
• Think in systems: design how the pieces fit, see where they'll break, and build now to avoid pain later
• Set the technical standard for how we build, and raise the level of the engineers around you
• Be the in-house anchor for a distributed engineering team: review their work, unblock them, and keep quality high across time zones
• Translate fuzzy direction from leadership into clear, scoped, buildable work
• Make the architecture and tooling calls the rest of the team builds on
• Turn product ideas into working features in days, not weeks
• Use AI tooling to move faster across coding, reviews, and reporting
• Refactor, test, and pay down debt as you go, leaving the codebase better than you found it

Benefits

• Health Coverage: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans
• 401(k) with Company Match
• Flexible Time Off
• Ownership & Upside: Compensation is structured to reward impact, with meaningful performance-based upside tied to the success of the products and business
• Build Your Own Lane: Opportunity to take on increasing responsibility, lead initiatives, and shape the direction of the company as it grows

What This Job Offers

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