Founding Engineer

Walden Recruiting

  • Chicago, Illinois
  • 30+ days ago

    Highlights

    As a Founding Software Engineer , you'll work directly with the co-founders to: Architect and build the core platform for ingesting, transforming, and reporting on operational, financial, and marketing data. You love the culture of startups and are ready to move fast, break things, and pivot on your work frequently, seeking that magical product/market fit as quickly as possible.

    Numbers & Facts

    LocationChicago, Illinois

    Description

     Job Description:

    What You'll Be Building

    As a Founding Software Engineer, you'll work directly with the co-founders to:

    • Architect and build the core platform for ingesting, transforming, and reporting on operational, financial, and marketing data
    • Design AI-driven automation workflows that surface insights and generate investor-ready outputs
    • Connect disparate SaaS tools (think Stripe, QuickBooks, Salesforce, HubSpot, Mixpanel, etc.) into one cohesive system
    • Own end-to-end product developmentfrom backend infrastructure to frontend UI (or wherever your strengths lie)
    • Establish and evolve engineering best practices, tooling, and dev culture from the ground up

    Who You Are

    • You're excited by the idea of being employee #1 and helping define a product and engineering culture
    • Youre creative and driven in your problem-solving
    • You love the culture of startups and are ready to move fast, break things, and pivot on your work frequently, seeking that magical product/market fit as quickly as possible
    • Youve built real systems from 0 1 (startups, side projects, internal toolsshow us!)
    • You have strong backend experience with modern languages like Python, Scala, or JavaScript
    • Youre comfortable with data architecture and integrating with external APIs
    • You're thoughtful about the human side of softwareprivacy, ethics, UX, and trust

    Bonus Points

    • Prior experience building data platforms, internal analytics tools, or B2B SaaS
    • Familiarity with tools like Airbyte, dbt, Snowflake, or similar
    • Understanding of investor reporting workflows (startup founder, CFO, or operator experience)

    Why Join Us Now

    • Massive ownership You'll shape the product, team, and company
    • Equity-first compensation Were offering meaningful ownership that reflects the impact of a founding team member
    • Real customer pain This is a problem we lived through as founders. We know the need is real and the market is wide open.
    • In-person momentum We're building from Chicago, and believe in the creative energy of working together IRL
    • Backed by winners Our Seed round is closed and were building with long-term partners behind us

    Compensation

    Competitive salary (with early-stage trade-offs)

    Significant equity stake (founding team level)

    In-office perks, great location, early team privileges

    Join us if you want to build something foundational, technically ambitious, and desperately needed.

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