FOUNDING TECHNICAL LEAD

About the role

Own the Architecture Behind an AI-Native Wellness Platform. If you've architected and personally shipped a real system, zero to one, and you want to do it again at the intersection of AI, hardware, and wellness, this is that seat. My client is an early-stage, founder-led wellness technology company building a connected ecosystem of practitioner software, consumer experiences, AI-assisted assessments, and wearable devices, and they need someone who can take a founder's specs and prototypes and turn them into production‑grade systems.

Responsibilities

• Backend and systems architecture across services, data, APIs, integrations, AI workflows, applications, and connected devices
• Turning the founder's product specs, designs, and prototypes into secure, maintainable, production‑ready systems
• Writing code, reviewing AI‑generated code, designing schemas and interfaces, debugging, and stepping directly into implementation
• Leading two software engineers while staying personally involved in architecture and development
• Coordinating additional specialists in electronics, devices, and hardware
• Translating architecture into priorities, milestones, owners, and delivery dates
• Helping build a consumer wellness experience with an AI health coach using phone camera/microphone signals
• Advancing a practitioner platform supporting deeper assessments and personalized protocols
• Owning and extending the company's internal AI operating system

Requirements

• Deep backend and systems architecture experience, with a demonstrated ability to design how services, data, applications, models, and integrations work together end to end
• Current, hands‑on engineering ability, able to enter an unfamiliar codebase and diagnose and fix problems yourself
• A record of personally architecting, building, and shipping meaningful products from zero to one
• Strong working knowledge of modern AI/ML systems: data pipelines, model integration, evaluation, guardrails, production operations
• Deep, practical experience using Claude Code or comparable AI coding tools for architecture, implementation, testing, debugging, and documentation
• Experience leading a small engineering team while remaining hands‑on
• Judgment to distinguish an architecture problem from a model, integration, or product decision
• Comfort working closely with a visionary founder, operating with incomplete information

Skills

• Multimodal AI, computer vision, audio processing, vocal biomarkers, biosignals, or health‑related data
• Wearables, IoT, firmware, electronics, or other hardware‑connected products
• Health technology, wellness, clinical workflows, diagnostics, or regulated data
• Founding engineer, principal engineer, technical lead, or early‑stage Head of Engineering experience

Pay

$140,000–$200,000 base depending on experience, plus discretionary bonus and equity (approximately 0.5%–1%, 1‑year cliff, 4‑year vest) for an exceptional candidate. On‑site, Salt Lake City, Utah.