Founding Engineer

About the Company

Noto is building the AI-native operating system for after-school businesses like tutoring centers, music schools, and sports academies. Our mission is to be the core platform that powers the 150,000 after-school businesses in the country. Despite their size and importance, these businesses are currently underserved by technology, typically relying on a fragmented mix of basic point solutions and outdated legacy software. Noto is creating an all-in-one system that uses AI to provide magical experiences to a large customer base accustomed to sticky notes and spreadsheets.

Noto is fresh off a $3.8M seed round, backed by top-tier VCs like Base10 and South Park Commons. Founded by two technical founders, AJ Ding and Steve Wang, Noto is based in NYC.

Team Background

• AJ Ding (CEO): Second-time founder, previously built an AI recruiting company. Former machine learning engineer and data scientist at Quora, Lyft, and Meta. Studied Statistics at Yale. Comes from a family of small business owners.
• Steve Wang (CTO): Previously Head of Engineering at Nitra, an a16z-backed vertical SaaS startup for back-office automation in healthcare. Worked in data science and engineering at Lyft. Studied math at Harvard. Family is from Canada.

Location

Noto is based in-person in New York, near Union Square.

• 4 days in-office, 1 day WFH
• 1 week per quarter work from anywhere
• Occasional travel for team offsites and customer visits

Work Culture

• High Camaraderie: We support each other and celebrate collective success.
• Low Ego: Collaboration over hierarchy. Flat decision-making structure—great ideas can come from anywhere.
• Work Hard: Team members are asked to work 50-60 hour weeks. Some late nights and occasional weekends may be expected, but this is about growth and impact, not burnout.
• Have Fun Too: Recent work offsite in Mexico City included a hackathon, city exploration, and team bonding. Past events include karaoke nights with customers.
• Growth Mindset: Attend industry conferences to connect with users, learn, network, and push boundaries.

Ideal Candidate

• 2+ years of experience as a full-stack product engineer.
• Passionate about building products that users interact with directly.
• Thrives in startups—values building something real over hype.
• Desires autonomy to make key technical and product decisions, move fast, and shape Noto’s future.
• Cares about small business owners and wants to use software and AI to help them thrive.

Tech Stack

You don’t need to know all of these—we trust you’ll learn quickly.

• Frontend: React, Next.js
• Backend: Node.js, PostgreSQL, Drizzle
• Infrastructure: tRPC in a Monorepo, deployed on Vercel
• AI: LLMs to streamline operations, data pipelines for seamless onboarding, and agentic workflows to automate complex tasks (e.g., scheduling).

Engineering Culture

• Product-Minded Engineers: Strong sense of ownership. You won’t just be handed specs—you’ll ask questions, take initiative, and contribute to the roadmap.
• Ship Quickly: Tolerate messiness to move fast but take responsibility for cleaning up tech debt.
• Core Values:
  • Always Be Shipping: Progress over perfection, iterate quickly.
  • Pride in Our Craft: Quality matters—we take pride in our work.
  • Serve the Customer: Our users run small businesses; we exist to make their lives easier.

Compensation & Perks

• Competitive pay and meaningful equity.
• Office lunch and a stipend for work-related expenses.
• Company retreats to bond, recharge, and plan the future.
• Great benefits—100% paid by the company.

Interview Process

• 30-minute behavioral interview with AJ.
• 45-minute technical screen with Steve.
• 45-minute coding interview.
• Paid onsite: 1 or 2 days in the office to experience a day in the life.

Why Work With Us

• Serve everyday people in local communities and make a large impact in an underserved market.
• Work with a smart, collaborative, ambitious, and caring team.
• Fast-paced environment with high levels of ownership.
• Fun founders and team offsites.
• Customer impact: Each customer averages over 6 hours of usage per day. “Y'all are incredible and have made such a difference in my life in ways both professional and personal. I'm grateful and indebted.” – Noto Customer