Location: Remote / Hybrid Type: Full-time Stage: Early-stage / Founding team
The Role
We’re looking for a Founding Principal Engineer to join as a senior technical co-builder. This is not a purely hands-on-keyboard role, and it’s not a purely strategic one either. You’ll be the person who sets the technical direction, makes the hard architectural calls, and then ships the code alongside the founding team.
You’ll own the full stack — a React/TypeScript frontend, a Node.js/Express backend, a PostgreSQL data layer (Neon serverless via Drizzle ORM), and a growing set of AI-powered features. You’ll work directly with the founder on product decisions, help hire and shape the early engineering team, and establish the practices that the company will build on for years.
If you want to be the person who decides what “good engineering” looks like at a company before it has 100 engineers, this is that role.
What You’ll Do
- Own the architecture. Make and document the decisions that define how the system scales — data model evolution, API design, real-time infrastructure (WebSockets), multi-tenant isolation, and authentication/RBAC.
- Ship product. Write production code across the stack: React 18/TypeScript on the frontend, Express/TypeScript on the backend, and SQL via Drizzle ORM. This is a senior IC role — you will build, not just review.
- Drive AI integration. Lead the design and implementation of AI-powered features using the Anthropic SDK — from generation and summarisation to agentic planning workflows.
- Establish engineering standards. Define the patterns, tooling, and review bar that new engineers will onboard into. Set up observability, testing strategy, CI/CD, and deployment discipline.
- Collaborate on product. Work closely with the founder to translate product requirements into technical solutions, push back when scope threatens quality, and propose better paths when you see them.
- Grow the team. Help recruit early engineers, conduct technical interviews, and mentor junior hires once the team expands.
- Own the deployment story. Manage Render deployments, the Neon PostgreSQL stack, AWS SES integration, and infrastructure decisions as the product scales.
What We’re Looking For
Required
- 8+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 3 years in a senior or staff-level IC role.
- Strong full-stack TypeScript — you’re comfortable owning both React and Node.js/Express in the same week.
- Deep experience with relational databases and ORM layers (experience with Drizzle, Prisma, or similar is a plus; PostgreSQL fluency is essential).
- A track record of making architectural decisions under uncertainty and living with the consequences — you’ve seen what happens when you get these right and when you get them wrong.
- Experience building multi-tenant SaaS products — you understand the data isolation, performance, and security challenges that come with it.
- Strong product sensibility — you can tell the difference between a feature that solves a real problem and one that adds complexity for its own sake.
- Experience with LLM/AI feature development (Anthropic SDK, OpenAI, or similar).
- Familiarity with real-time patterns (WebSockets, SSE, optimistic UI).
- Experience with RBAC systems and permission modelling.
- Background in project management, resource planning, or financial tooling domains.
- Prior founding or early-stage startup experience.
Nice to Have
- Experience with LLM/AI feature development (Anthropic SDK, OpenAI, or similar).
- Familiarity with real-time patterns (WebSockets, SSE, optimistic UI).
- Experience with RBAC systems and permission modelling.
- Background in project management, resource planning, or financial tooling domains.
- Prior founding or early-stage startup experience.
Why Join Us?
You’ll shape the product, not just build it. At this stage, engineering and product decisions are inseparable. Your technical choices will directly define what Forest.tools can and can’t do for customers.
You’ll set the culture. The first few engineers at any company establish the norms everyone else inherits. You’ll decide what good looks like — in code review, in system design, in how the team communicates.
The stack is modern and intentional. React 18, TypeScript end-to-end, Vite, TanStack Query, Drizzle ORM, Neon serverless Postgres, Anthropic SDK. No legacy baggage — just well-chosen tools and the freedom to keep improving them.
The problem space is rich. Project management, capacity planning, budget management, and strategic planning all in one platform. There are deep engineering challenges in data modelling, real-time state, multi-tenancy, and AI-assisted planning — and you’ll get to work on all of them.
You’ll work with, not for. This is a founding-team relationship. You’ll have a direct line to product decisions, customer conversations, and company direction from day one.
Forest.tools is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds, disciplines, and experience paths.