Founding Engineer - Chat & Real-Time Features

About the Role This is an early, high-ownership engineering position on a small product team at a well-funded healthtech startup. You'll be one of the first engineers focused on chat and real-time features, working directly alongside founding stakeholders to shape core systems that define the user experience and product direction. This is a rare opportunity to have lasting technical impact from day one. What You'll Do Design and implement core chat and real-time features for a production healthtech product. Collaborate closely with a small, cross-functional founding team to define and execute technical direction. Build reliable, scalable services and iterate quickly based on real user feedback. Participate in architecture and design discussions, balancing speed-to-ship with long-term maintainability. Own components end-to-end — from implementation and testing through to monitoring and observability. What We're Looking For Proven track record delivering production software in real-time or chat-related systems. Strong engineering fundamentals with practical, full-stack experience building scalable, reliable services. Comfort operating with high autonomy in a fast-moving, early-stage environment. Experience collaborating effectively in remote or distributed teams. Must be a U.S. citizen or Green Card holder — visa sponsorship is not available now or in the future. Compensation & Benefits Base salary: $135,000 – $155,000 per year Equity: ~0.5% – 1.5% Opportunity to shape the technical foundation of a high-growth healthtech product Location Fully remote within the United States. Candidates must be based in the U.S. and authorized to work without visa sponsorship.