Summary
What you’ll impact
The Founding Engineer will join a small founding team to design and build a brand-new AI-native healthcare benefits/PBM platform from the ground up. This role involves defining architecture, writing the first production code, and shaping engineering culture while operating with high autonomy and confidentiality.
Responsibilities
What you'll do
- Join a founding team of 2 3 engineers and personally define the technical architecture and direction for a brand-new healthcare benefits/PBM platform
- Own major architecture decisions end-to-end - distributed systems, APIs, data models, and cloud infrastructure - with no legacy system to work around
- Write the first production code and build the core systems from scratch
- Operate with high autonomy and a direct line to senior leadership, moving from idea to decision quickly
- Build systems designed to handle high-volume, high-stakes healthcare data
- Help shape the engineering culture and practices for the team, not just join an existing one
- Maintain strict confidentiality and discretion; this role involves NDAs beyond standard company agreements
Requirements
What you’ll bring
- Proven experience building a meaningful product or platform from scratch (0-to-1), at a startup, a Series A D company, a smaller high-growth company, or an internal skunkworks/0-to-1 team
- Demonstrated personal ownership of architecture, distributed systems, APIs, data models, and cloud infrastructure
- Experience building and operating systems with high-volume and/or high-stakes data
- Strong CS/software engineering fundamentals
- Recent, modern engineering experience: distributed systems, cloud-native architecture, event-driven systems, data platforms, and/or AI-native products
- Proficiency in one or more of: Python, Go, Java, TypeScript
- Operating at a Staff, Senior Staff, Principal, Senior Principal, Distinguished, or Founding Engineer level - hands-on and comfortable making major architecture decisions with minimal oversight
- Comfort working in a confidential, high-discretion environment
- Healthcare, PBM (pharmacy benefit management), or benefits administration experience
- Background in fintech, insurance, data infrastructure, or AI platform engineering considered for exceptional candidates without direct healthcare experience
- Degree from a top CS/engineering program (e.g., Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, UIUC, Georgia Tech, Cornell, Princeton, or similar)