Responsibilities
- Own the Problem
- Take accountability for the outcome.
- Talk directly to your users, stakeholders, and peers to discover the problem.
- Translate business intents into functional requirements that engineers and agents can build against.
- Determine where human judgment is non-negotiable and where AI can augment or act autonomously.
- Own the non-functional technical requirements.
- Specify the quality bar: performance, scalability, reliability, security, maintainability.
- Build with AI
- Write production-quality code across the stack: Python, Django, AWS, React, and PostgreSQL.
- You are not afraid of any layer.
- Direct agents and review their output with domain depth.
- Catch what they miss across the functional and non-functional bar: correctness, edge cases, performance, security, testability, readability.
- Evaluate and improve agent output regularly.
- Track failure modes.
- Refine the prompts and patterns that lift the quality ceiling over time.
- Run projects that span other Product Engineers and agents.
- Coordinate work, manage dependencies, and keep things moving without micromanaging.
- Contribute to architectural decisions.
- Bring options and alternatives, not objections.
- Know when the elegant solution is the wrong call for a startup moving fast.
- Contribute to and manage the context harness as you build and deliver.
- Verify and Iterate
- Surface delivery risks early.
- Bring solutions, not just problems.
- Keep your stakeholders informed without turning every risk into a meeting.
- Verify the end-to-end result yourself.
- Confirm the system does what the requirements say, and that the requirements were right.
- Drive adoption of what you ship.
- Documentation, enablement, and usage monitoring are part of the job.
- Monitor your services in production.
- Own the signal.
- Debug and fix what breaks.
- Participate in support rotations.
- When users run into issues with what you shipped, you investigate and fix them.
- Iterate until you move the needle.
- Shipping is not the finish line.
- Outcome is.
- Raise the Bar
- Grow quickly and leave things better than you found them.
- Be aware of technical debt trade-offs — know when to move fast and when to slow down and clean up.
- Operate to the engineering standards for quality, reliability, and operational excellence.
Requirements
- 3+ years building production web applications across the full stack.
- Demonstrated end-to-end ownership.
- Proficiency in developing with AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI Codex, similar) and the drive to stay ahead of how AI development practices are evolving.
- Demonstrated experience gathering requirements directly.
- Demonstrated experience owning both functional and non-functional requirements.
- A track record of owning a domain or initiative without close supervision.
- Extreme ownership and a bias for action.
- Domain curiosity.
- The ability to communicate clearly across engineering, product, and business, translating technical complexity without losing meaning.
- Low ego and high Emotional Quotient (EQ).
- Experience working with distributed, remote teams.
Benefits
- Fully remote workplace
- Unlimited Vacation
- Work from Anywhere
- Stock Options
- Health, Dental, and Vision Coverage
- 401(k) Retirement Plan
- Parental Leave
- Home Office Allowance
- Wellness Stipend
- Book stipend
- Professional Development Reimbursement
- No working birthdays
- Charitable Contribution Matching
WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH
Derrick Franco, Principal Engineer: After teaching himself to code at 13, Derrick went on to co-found Jumpstart in addition to building out the technical divisions at InvestorsAlley and Phinaz Media Group. Nowadays Derrick spends his time reading, with his wife, and working on his podcast The Future of Work Project. Julian Prokay, Principal Engineer: A veteran of the SaaS space with experience working on both student systems and construction management software. In his free time, he enjoys history podcasts and fantasy literature. Tony Nguyen, Engineering Manager: Tony is an engineering and platform leader with 25+ years of leadership experience at companies like Sony PlayStation Network, Intuit TurboTax, and ServiceNow. He thrives at building products, scaling teams, and leading organizations, but more so building people. He believes the best leadership and engineering comes from bringing your full identity to work. For him that's faith, family, and sports! Outside of work, you can catch him on the couch with his 3 adult children watching anime, going to Disneyland, or having game nights. Ron Alexessen, Engineering Manager: With experience at Hewlett-Packard, New Relic, Rackspace, and consulting agencies, Ron has built teams and shaped technical culture across different environments. He's passionate about AI-enabled development as a force multiplier and building solutions that create real business impact. Outside work, he boulders, runs, rides gravel bikes, and co-parents active teenagers, embracing structured chaos in all of it. Newton Truong, Engineering Manager: Newton joins Counterpart with 7+ years of experience in platform and data engineering. In his last company Thrive Market, he had a hand in building out new microservices and architecting data pipelines with Airflow and Spark. He's vegetarian and loves trying new restaurants when traveling. Nowadays he's busy keeping up with his 2-year-old and doing outdoor activities with his family. John Mendez, Engineering Manager: John has experience working at companies of all sizes. He enjoys startups and small-to-medium businesses, where he can wear multiple hats and help deliver solutions. Outside of work, he stays busy with his four kids and their activities. He also makes time to stay active by working out at home and running or walking with his dog.
COUNTERPART'S VALUES
Conjoin Expectations - it is the cornerstone of autonomy. Ensure you are aware of what is expected of you and clearly articulate what you expect of others. Speak Boldly & Honestly - the only failure is not learning from mistakes. Don't cheat yourself and your colleagues of the feedback needed when expectations aren't being met. Be Entrepreneurial - control your own destiny. Embrace action over perfection while navigating any obstacles that stand in the way of your ultimate goal. Leverage AI ruthlessly. We measure success by outcomes, not lines of code written. Use every available AI tool to ship faster and think more strategically. Practice Omotenashi ("selfless hospitality") - trust will follow. Consider every interaction with internal and external partners an opportunity to develop trust by going above and beyond what is expected. Hold Nothing As Sacred - create routines but modify them routinely. Take the time to reflect on where the business is today, where it needs to go, and what you have to change in order to get there. Prioritize Wellness - some things should never be sacrificed. We create an environment that stretches everyone to grow and improve, which is fulfilling, but is only one part of a meaningful life.
