This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Founding Engineer based in South Africa.
This is a high-impact founding engineering opportunity for a hands-on builder who wants to shape both product and engineering from an early stage.
You will lead development of a web application and blockchain-based infrastructure designed to accelerate scientific research and collaboration.
The role combines software development, technical decision-making, product thinking, and engineering leadership.
You will work across modern web technologies and smart contracts while helping define scalable technical foundations.
As the organization grows, you will play a key role in building an exceptional engineering team and establishing a strong engineering culture.
The position offers significant autonomy, ownership, and influence over both the technology roadmap and product direction.
It is ideal for an experienced engineer who is technically strong, collaborative, optimistic, and energized by building something ambitious from the ground up.
Accountabilities
- Lead the development and evolution of the web application, delivering high-quality features aligned with product goals and user needs.
- Make and own engineering decisions that support the product roadmap, technical scalability, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
- Contribute to the design and evolution of the platform's cryptoeconomic structure and reward mechanisms.
- Establish scalable engineering practices, development processes, and quality standards that enable the organization to grow effectively.
- Help shape the technical direction and product vision as a founding member of the engineering organization.
- Following product-market fit, recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing engineering team.
- Establish a strong engineering culture centered on quality, collaboration, ownership, and continuous improvement.
- Collaborate closely with product and other stakeholders to translate ideas into reliable, scalable technology.
Requirements
- Proven experience building scalable, testable, and high-quality web or mobile applications.
- Strong software engineering fundamentals and the ability to make sound technical decisions in an evolving product environment.
- Demonstrated experience building or leading high-quality engineering teams.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with an ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and thoughtfully.
- Strong ownership mentality and the ability to operate autonomously while maintaining alignment with broader product objectives.
- Humble, optimistic, energetic, and inspiring approach to collaboration and leadership.
- Experience with Django and React is highly desirable.
- Experience developing mobile applications with React Native is a plus.
- Experience writing Ethereum smart contracts and working with Solidity is a strong advantage.
- Familiarity with PostgreSQL and modern web application architectures is beneficial.
Benefits
- Founding-level ownership and influence over product and engineering direction.
- Opportunity to shape an engineering organization and culture from an early stage.
- Remote working environment with the flexibility to contribute from Canada.
- Opportunity to work across web development, blockchain, smart contracts, and innovative technology.
- Significant autonomy in technical decision-making and execution.
- Opportunity to help build products designed to accelerate scientific research and collaboration.
- Potential to grow into a key engineering leadership position as the organization scales.
How Jobgether works:
We use an AI-powered matching process to ensure your application is reviewed quickly, objectively, and fairly against the role's core requirements. Our system identifies the top-fitting candidates, and this shortlist is then shared directly with the hiring company. The final decision and next steps (interviews, assessments) are managed by their internal team.
We appreciate your interest and wish you the best!
Data Privacy Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Jobgether will process your personal data to evaluate your candidacy and share relevant information with the hiring employer. This processing is based on legitimate interest and pre-contractual measures under applicable data protection laws (including GDPR). You may exercise your rights (access, rectification, erasure, objection) at any time.
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