For founders · Role design and search
Founding Engineer
Hire a Founding Engineer for the product you still need to discover.
Start with the problem the person must take from an incomplete idea to working software. Define the decisions they can make, the support they will have and the evidence you need before making an offer.
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What to assess
What candidates should be able to show.
For each example, separate what the person demonstrated, what they described and what still needs to be tested.
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Software they brought into use
A specific product or feature, their personal contribution and what happened after release. Examine the code and decisions they can share, including how they handled a production problem.
Walk us through something you shipped while the product requirements were still changing. What did you decide yourself?
Establish the contribution you can attribute to the candidate and how they stayed close to the product problem.
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Product decisions under uncertainty
How they narrowed an unclear request, learned from a user and chose what to build first. Look for a reason behind the scope and evidence that informed the next decision.
Here is our next product milestone. What would you need to learn before choosing the first piece to build?
Test whether the candidate can turn your uncertainty into a useful next action.
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An engineering foundation others can use
How they made the work understandable, testable and maintainable for the next person. Explore what they documented, simplified or deliberately left for later.
Which part of a system you built became difficult to change, and what would you do differently now?
Understand whether they can explain consequences, recognize limits and adjust their approach.
Where the brief can go wrong
Resolve these before asking candidates to commit.
Responsibility without decision rights
Agree which decisions the engineer can make and where founder input is required. The title alone does not give someone authority.
An undefined product mandate
Specify how much customer discovery and product judgment the role carries. Make the founder’s remaining responsibility visible.
Unclear expectations after the next hire
Describe how the role may develop when more engineers join. Avoid implying a future leadership title that has not been agreed.
Bring the context
What must your Founding Engineer make possible?
- What the product does today and the next milestone it needs to reach
- The existing code, technical support and people the engineer will work with
- Decisions the person can make, plus location and working requirements
- What has been difficult about the search so far
This page describes a search approach. Find current vacancies under Open roles. See open roles