Senior / Staff Product Engineer

Recruiting From Scratch•San Francisco, CA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Our client is building AI-powered compliance technology that helps financial institutions automate complex financial crime workflows. The platform uses AI agents and workflow automation to process large volumes of compliance cases for banks and fintech companies, helping compliance teams automate AML, sanctions, KYC, and other regulatory review processes while keeping humans in the loop. The company is experiencing rapid growth and is scaling its engineering organization while continuing to build deeply customer-facing products. The engineering team operates with a strong product mindset, with engineers expected to work directly with customers, understand complex business problems, and translate those problems into reliable technical solutions. This is a high-ownership Product Engineering role where you'll own substantial features from customer discovery through production deployment and iteration. As a Senior or Staff Product Engineer, you'll work across the full stack, building backend services, APIs, databases, frontend experiences, and AI-powered workflows using TypeScript, Python, Node.js, and React. The ideal candidate combines strong full-stack engineering fundamentals with startup experience, customer empathy, product thinking, and a demonstrated ability to build zero-to-one products used by real customers.

Requirements

3–6+ years of product software engineering experience
Strong full-stack software engineering background
Strong backend engineering experience
Strong experience with Python or TypeScript/Node.js
Experience building and shipping zero-to-one products
Experience building products used by real customers
Experience at a high-growth, talent-dense startup
Experience owning projects end-to-end
Experience working closely with customers or customer-facing teams
Experience translating customer problems into technical solutions
Experience building APIs and working with databases
Experience working across frontend and backend systems
Experience with modern product engineering environments
Strong product thinking and customer empathy
Strong technical judgment
Comfortable operating independently with limited support
Experience working in ambiguous and rapidly changing environments
Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
Demonstrated ability to ship quickly while maintaining engineering quality
Experience working closely with Product and Design
Strong ownership mentality
Ability to balance technical and business considerations
Experience working at startups rather than exclusively large technology companies
Strong Python or TypeScript/Node.js experience
Strong backend development fundamentals
Strong full-stack engineering capabilities
Experience building production APIs
Strong database fundamentals
Experience with PostgreSQL or similar relational databases
Experience with React
Experience building production web applications
Strong understanding of modern web architecture
Experience designing backend services and APIs
Experience integrating third-party services and APIs
Experience with cloud infrastructure
Experience deploying production applications
Experience building reliable production systems
Strong understanding of software architecture
Strong system design fundamentals
Ability to make technical tradeoffs independently
Strong debugging and problem-solving skills
Ability to write clean, maintainable, production-quality code
Experience working with data-driven applications
Experience building customer-facing product experiences
Ability to move between frontend and backend development as needed
Comfortable working across the full product engineering lifecycle
Strong product thinking
Strong customer empathy
High ownership mentality
High agency
Comfortable operating independently
Strong problem-solving ability
Comfortable with ambiguity
Bias toward action
Strong communication skills
Strong customer-facing communication ability
Ability to understand complex business problems
Ability to translate customer needs into technical solutions
Strong business judgment
Strong technical judgment
Collaborative and low-ego working style
Strong cross-functional instincts
Comfortable working directly with customers
Strong execution ability
Ability to move quickly without sacrificing quality
Comfortable making decisions with incomplete information
Strong learning mentality
Adaptable to rapidly changing requirements
Comfortable in a fast-paced startup environment
Motivated by building products from zero to one
Excited by meaningful customer impact
Comfortable working across the product and engineering stack
Strong attention to detail
Strong accountability
Comfortable taking ownership without extensive support
Able to balance engineering quality with business urgency
Genuine interest in AI and financial technology
Excited by solving complex problems in regulated industries

Nice To Haves

Experience with Next.js preferred
Experience with workflow orchestration preferred
Experience integrating LLMs or AI features into production applications preferred
Experience with AI agents or agentic workflows preferred
Familiarity with regulated or high-correctness environments preferred
Bachelor's degree preferred
Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related technical disciplines preferred
Strong educational pedigree is a plus
Exceptional engineering experience and demonstrated product impact can compensate for academic pedigree

Responsibilities

Own substantial product features end-to-end from discovery through production deployment and iteration
Work directly with customers to understand complex compliance and operational problems
Lead customer discovery and requirements-gathering conversations
Translate customer needs into scalable and elegant technical solutions
Build zero-to-one products and features used by real customers
Develop AI-powered workflows that automate complex compliance processes
Build agentic workflows that coordinate AI tools and data services
Develop systems supporting AML, sanctions, and KYC review workflows
Build intuitive interfaces for compliance case management
Develop reporting and analytics experiences for enterprise customers
Build workflow configuration and automation interfaces
Build production-grade backend services using TypeScript, Node.js, and Python
Build and maintain production APIs
Design and work with relational databases and data models
Build full-stack product experiences using React and Next.js
Integrate AI and LLM capabilities into customer-facing product workflows
Build reliable production systems that process high volumes of compliance cases
Design technical solutions that balance speed, reliability, scalability, and correctness
Make architecture decisions independently
Own technical projects from initial concept through deployment
Ship production code quickly and iterate based on customer feedback
Collaborate closely with Product, Design, Engineering, and business stakeholders
Work with enterprise customers to continuously improve product experiences
Translate complex regulated-industry requirements into simple user experiences
Contribute to technical architecture and engineering standards
Improve system reliability, maintainability, and performance
Help establish engineering patterns and best practices as the team scales
Operate effectively in a fast-paced startup environment
Take ownership of ambiguous problems without requiring extensive direction
Help shape the technical direction of customer-facing AI products
Contribute to workflow orchestration and AI agent infrastructure
Work with cloud infrastructure and production deployment systems
Balance technical quality with the urgency of customer-driven product development
Build products that directly impact customer workflows and business outcomes