Founding Engineer

Paradigm is building an AI-driven workplace culture platform that integrates intelligence, analytics, and expert insights to help companies build inclusive, high-performance cultures where everyone can do their best work and thrive. We help our clients design representative teams, fair talent systems and processes, and inclusive cultures that boost engagement, performance, and retention. Since our founding in 2014, we have delivered impactful solutions to thousands of organizations, from fast-growing startups to Fortune 100 companies. Now we’re building an AI intelligence layer to transform how companies understand and improve culture in real time. 

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion: We deeply understand the value of bringing together a team with different identities, perspectives, educational backgrounds, and life experiences. We help our customers build representative teams, and we prioritize diversity within our own teams as well. We encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

Details, compensation, perks, & benefits: This is a fully remote, full-time position. At Paradigm, we want to build an environment where everyone can bring their best self to work while maintaining a healthy relationship with themselves, their families, and their communities. Learn more about some of the perks of working @ Paradigm as well as our employee benefits.  The role has an annual base salary range of $150,000 to $175,000, plus bonus and equity.

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WHO WE’RE HIRING

We’re looking for a Founding Engineer who is energized by building from scratch, shipping fast, and owning major technical decisions. You’ll be the hands-on engineer shaping our next chapter of growth: building AI-powered experiences, designing core architecture, and rapidly iterating in a scrappy, fast-moving environment. You’ll work directly with the CEO and Co-Founders, partnering on product strategy and owning the full stack of what we build. You’ll also collaborate with a part-time Head of Engineering, as well as contract engineers. 

This role is ideal for someone who is:

• Deeply AI-native (you actively use tools like Claude, Cursor, Replit, Copilot, etc.)
• Comfortable building end-to-end with modern frameworks (e.g., shadcn/ui, Tailwind, Node.js)
• Excited to rapidly prototype, ship, and iterate
• Entrepreneurial by nature; you have a bias toward action, MVP thinking, high urgency
• Motivated by solving meaningful problems and building category-defining products

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WHAT YOU’LL DO

As Paradigm’s Founding Engineer, you will:

• Build core product experiences end-to-end, especially new AI-driven features and intelligence layers.
• Own the technical stack including architecture, DevOps, data pipelines, backend, frontend, integrations.
• Prototype rapidly, using AI tools to accelerate development, explore ideas, and test assumptions.
• Partner directly with the CEO and Head of Engineering on product direction, technical strategy, and roadmap decisions.
• Establish and apply engineering best practices around security, testing, observability, and reliability (lightweight and pragmatic).
• Work creatively to identify simple and scalable solutions to technical challenges. 
• Operate with a strong bias toward speed, clarity, simplicity, and ownership.

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ABOUT YOU

You might be a great fit if you:

• Have 5+ years of full-stack engineering experience and love shipping real production software. Experience building enterprise software is a plus, but not required.
• Are deeply AI-first in how you build. You already rely on tools like Claude, Cursor, Copilot, GPT-4 to speed development and generate ideas.
• Are fluent with modern front-end and full-stack frameworks (e.g., shadcn/ui, Next.js or equivalent, Tailwind, Node.js, TypeScript).
• Thrive in early-stage environments where priorities shift and you have wide autonomy.
• Operate with a builder’s mindset: fast iterations, pragmatic solutions, and a willingness to prototype and learn.
• Value both speed and quality, and you move fast without creating chaos.
• Care about data security and good engineering hygiene (GDPR, SOC2, secure architecture).
• Enjoy working with non-technical stakeholders and can communicate technical ideas to non-engineers.
• Believe healthy workplace culture matters, and want to build a mission-driven product that makes work better for everyone.

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Sound like you?

We’d love to meet you.

If you need an accommodation to participate in our interview process, please let us know.