DF - Founding Fullstack Engineer (Front-End Oriented)

About Empirical

Empirical empowers early and growth stage tech companies to create the right products in the right way by providing two pivotal services:

• Product & Technology Leadership: Our clients entrust critical decisions to our network of top-tier US-based CTOs and CPOs. We provide fractional, project, or advisory based support, combining highly experienced talent with a flexible approach.

• Product Development Teams: We provide our clients with high performing, senior product development talent through a scalable staff augmentation model and ongoing support. We focus on Latin America to find exceptional talent, with time zone and cultural compatibility.

We are proud to be a people first company, where we prioritize building meaningful, long lasting human connections with clients and team members alike, while embracing diversity and uniqueness. With this foundation and our focus on talent, we help create great products that people love.

Our values

• Care about people first

• Strive to add value always

• Lead with integrity

• Have fun every step of the way

The opportunity

DF is a mission-driven startup improving surgical outcomes by making sure life-saving medical devices arrive where and when they’re needed. The company is in an early stage, freshly funded with guaranteed two years of runway, already live with its first customers.

Founded by seasoned executives with deep roots in the healthcare technology industry, DF’s leadership brings strong domain credibility and a clear understanding of market needs. They identified a sector hungry for this solution and are now focused on scaling it with a product-first, engineering-driven approach. The current team includes a CTO and a VP of Engineering, each with over 15 years of experience building and leading high-performing software teams. You'll work along another fullstack founding engineer, focused on the back-end side of the stack.

This is a founding engineer role for someone hands-on, pragmatic, and eager to help define and implement the product roadmap. Working closely with the founding team, you’ll shape the product, architecture, and early engineering culture, turning complex workflows into simple, usable interfaces and building functional products fast while staying connected to real users. You’re comfortable with ambiguity, driven by solving real customer problems, and motivated to build something meaningful from the ground up, with the chance to grow into a leadership role as the team expands.

What you’ll do

• Build and ship new user-facing features end to end, iterating quickly from real customer feedback

• Collaborate with the founding team and your backend counterpart to define and deliver the roadmap

• Turn complex workflows into simple, usable interfaces using modern TypeScript frameworks

• Contribute to architecture and product discussions that shape the platform’s direction

• Work directly with customers and founders to refine requirements and product decisions

• Take ownership of delivery at a sustainable pace, prioritizing outcomes, quality, and accountability

Your background

You’ll thrive in this role if you have a strong foundation in modern TypeScript development and love turning complex problems into clean, usable products.

Core Skills

• 5+ years building and shipping production web applications

• Strong proficiency with TypeScript across both frontend and backend

• Hands-on experience with Node.js (or Deno)

• Solid understanding of relational databases (PostgreSQL preferred)

• Familiarity with REST and GraphQL APIs

• Comfortable working in cloud environments (AWS or GCP)

• Excellent English communication and collaboration skills in remote teams

Strong Pluses

• Experience with SvelteKit (or modern alternatives like Next.js, Astro, Gatsby)

• Familiarity with Drizzle ORM (or Prisma, Sequelize, TypeORM)

• Infrastructure-as-Code experience (Terraform or similar)

• Pragmatic approach to UI, using standard component libraries (Tailwind, shadcn/ui)

• Exposure to backend frameworks such as Django, Flask, FastAPI, or Rails

• Product-driven mindset: iterate fast, collaborate directly with customers and founders

Bonus Points

• Experience using AI-powered development tools (Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code)

• Interest in agentic programming or emerging AI-integrated workflows

• Startup experience: self-sufficient, adaptable, comfortable with ambiguity

What we expect from you

• 100% alignment with our core values!

• Ability to take ownership of projects from start to finish

• Strong collaboration and communication skills

• Attention to detail and a passion for creating great user experiences

What we offer

• Remote/flexible work

• Highly competitive compensation in US dollars

• Opportunities for personal and professional development; mentorship, coaching and training as needed

• Ongoing, 40 hours per week dedication

• The chance to be part of an amazing, multicultural community of tech experts

Why work with us?

• We pride ourselves on our core values and have proven that putting people first creates a thriving and collaborative work environment.

• We seek to accommodate and balance individual needs with client needs, understanding each one of us is unique.

• We offer benefits such as remote/flexible work, selective paid training, mentorship programs, referral programs and more.

• We are selective in the projects we take on to ensure our teams are engaged in challenging, meaningful, enjoyable opportunities that will provoke creativity, innovation and growth!