Founding Engineer

Fernstone Insurance

• $125K — $150K *
Enterprise Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 2+ years of relevant experience
  • Experience in shipping and maintaining production software
  • Ability to translate ambiguous business problems into targeted solutions
  • Strong backend and relational database skills
  • Competence in building polished front-end features
  • Experience with language models and their evaluation
  • Proficient in using AI development tools and debugging code

Responsibilities

  • Partner with operations to identify and prioritize product opportunities
  • Design and build complete features across the technology stack
  • Create reliable workflows that maintain accuracy under pressure
  • Develop systems that automate processes and intelligently escalate issues to users

Benefits

  • Opportunity to shape the product as a founding engineer
  • Direct impact on company operations and growth
  • Collaboration with operations for real-world insights
  • Possibility to work on practical applications of AI
Full Job Description
The role:

As founding engineer (and engineering hire #2), you'll have a substantial role in building our product. You'll work directly with the operators using your product, own critical systems across the stack, and help set the technical direction of the company. Your work will have a direct impact on how we operate, serve customers, and grow.

What you'll work on:
  • Own outcomes: partner with our operations team to learn how insurance work gets done, identify the biggest opportunities, and decide what to build.
  • Build across the stack: Design and build complete features across the interface, application logic, data model, and infrastructure.
  • Engineer for the real world: Create reliable workflows where accuracy matters, outside systems fail, and events may unfold over days or weeks
  • Develop practical AI: Build systems that interpret information, automate multi-step work, and recognize when a person needs to step in.


What we look for:
  • 2+ YOE
  • You've shipped and maintained production software that people depend on.
  • You can take an ambiguous business problem, ask good questions, and turn it into a focused solution.
  • You have strong backend and relational database fundamentals, and you're comfortable building a polished frontend.
  • You think carefully about data correctness, failure handling, and how systems behave after deployment.
  • You have practical experience building with language models, including evaluating their output and handling mistakes.
  • You use AI development tools effectively and take responsibility for understanding, reviewing, and debugging the code you ship.

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