Founding Engineer

About the Company

Unimatch Lab is an AI-driven Venture Studio from Silicon Valley. We are building our own AI technology framework and a portfolio of AI-driven assets: from consumer AI products and smart devices to local LLM clusters and foundational layers (memory layer, RAM/VRAM optimization, orchestration, AI software for infrastructure and computing). This includes R&D in the field of local, distributed, and orbital data centers and distributed computing. Goal: to be among the top 50 AI companies in the world with a total asset valuation of $10B+ by 2032. We are an OKR-driven company: focused on measurable results, speed, transparency, and ownership. We are looking for A-players: autonomous, fast, with strong execution skills and a high level of responsibility. Learn more about the company: Unimatch Lab Career

Brief About the Role

The Founding Engineer leads a studio project from a fixed scope to a production-ready release. Backend is the main focus: models and APIs, authorization, migrations, background tasks, builds, CI/CD, staging, and production with rollback. When needed, you handle frontend, mobile, integrations, and observability at the MVP level. You sync with the founder or Vibe Product Manager on scope, Definition of Done, and priorities. You conduct demos, record meeting outcomes, and uphold handover agreements. Expected pace - short cycles of about two weeks for a typical MVP scope. You automate routine tasks through vibe-coding and agents: test drafts, documentation, release scripts. You control the quality of the output. Main time is spent on architecture, code, and predictability of the result.

What You'll Do

• Work with the founder or product manager to define scope, definition of done, release deadline, and production-ready criteria before the sprint starts.
• Design and implement backend: models, APIs, authorization, migrations, background tasks; frontend or mobile as per task; integrations; basic observability at the MVP level.
• Finalize the build, CI/CD, testing on staging, and release to production; rollback to the last stable version in case of failure; minimal runbook and README.
• Use vibe-coding (Cursor and similar) and agents for routine tasks: test drafts, documentation, scripts, where it speeds up work without loss of quality.
• Demo during the cycle; final handover: repository, build, launch instructions, list of known limitations.

Must Have

• 5+ years of experience as a full-stack engineer with a focus on backend: independently designing and implementing the server side.
• Vibe-coding as a constant working mode: regularly delivering features to UI, API, and deployment using AI-assisted tools.
• Product thinking: ability to narrow scope, choose MVP, argue trade-offs for the customer, and agree on an acceptable minimum within the deadline.
• Proven production experience in web or mobile: releases, incident analysis, post-release fixes.
• Speed with measurable results: cases where you delivered an agreed release to a working product in production or to launch within 1-2 weeks.
• Portfolio and code are mandatory: links to repositories, demos, example PRs, screen recordings, or other artifacts.
• English B2+ (working proficiency): code, documentation, calls.

Nice to Have

• Experience in startups, venture studios, or multi-product environments.
• LLM tools: LangChain, LangGraph, Mastra, CrewAI, Autogen, HuggingFace, OpenAI, Claude, Mistral.
• LLM infrastructure: RAG, embeddings, vector DBs; agent evaluation (reliability, safety).
• React Native, Expo, Next.js, GraphQL - these are closer to the studio's portfolio.

Tech Stack

• Core: Node.js, React, Next.js, React Native, Expo, GraphQL, REST, WebSockets, OAuth2, JWT.
• AI and Orchestration: LangChain, LangGraph, Mastra, CrewAI, Autogen, MCP, function calling, structured outputs.
• Observability: OpenTelemetry, Langfuse, Prometheus, Datadog, or equivalents.
• Practices: Git, CI/CD, Jira, ADR, SRS.

How We Measure Success

• Time-to-production-ready from kickoff to release according to the agreed scope: target ≤ 14 calendar days for a typical MVP increment.
• On-scope delivery: 100% of agreed DoD completed by the release date or a recorded fix plan with a deadline.
• Post-release quality: no critical defects in the first 7 days or an agreed SLA for hotfixes.
• Share of routine work through agents and vibe-coding (tests, docs, release scripts) - an indicator of your workflow maturity.
• Project economics: payment per SoW after signed release of the agreed result; amount and release criteria are fixed before work starts.

Team

• Solid line: Head of People, Culture & Operations.
• Dotted line: CEO and Head of Infra and Automation.

Conditions and Format

• Format: Project-based contract, remote; synchronous windows by agreement (CET, etc.)
• Time: Cycle is fixed before start; target up to 2 weeks for an agreed MVP scope
• Income: $10,000 - $20,000 per accepted production-ready result per SoW
• Team: Founders and product; equity or options - per separate agreements
• Startup: Opportunity to launch your own startup within the Venture Studio
• Network: Interaction with top-tier venture funds from Silicon Valley
• AI: Exposure to AI products - the opportunity to test and implement the best AI solutions every month