LOOKING FOR STELLAR TOP CANDIDATES

Position: Senior Software Engineer – Productivity App
Schedule: Full-time│40 hours/week │ Monday–Friday EST Business Hours
Location: Fully remote (Preference for Cape Town, but open to global candidates)
Salary: 2800 - 4000 USD per month
Final offer depends on client decision, interview results, and experience level

About the Client:

Our client is a content creator and entrepreneur building a new technology product focused on productivity, planning, and personal goal achievement. The company is developing a productivity application designed to help users connect their day-to-day tasks and priorities with their larger, long-term goals. Rather than operating as a traditional standalone task manager, the product aims to create a stronger connection between what users want to accomplish long term and how they spend their time each day. They are seeking a Software Engineer to help build, improve, and scale the application as it moves through development.

Role Summary:

The Software Engineer will be responsible for hands-on development of a new productivity application combining planning, task management, and long-term goal tracking.

This is a highly hands-on engineering position requiring someone who can take product concepts and translate them into reliable, scalable software. The engineer will work closely with the founder to understand the product vision, evaluate technical requirements, build features, solve technical challenges, and contribute to architectural decisions as the application evolves.

While modern AI development tools may be used to increase productivity, the company is specifically seeking a candidate with strong underlying engineering knowledge and proven project experience. Candidates must be capable of understanding, reviewing, debugging, and improving the code they produce rather than relying primarily on AI-generated solutions.

Role Responsibilities:

Application Development

Build and maintain features for a new productivity and planning application
Translate product requirements and ideas into functional software
Develop features connecting daily tasks and activities with longer-term goals
Build intuitive workflows around planning, task management, prioritization, and progress tracking
Contribute across the application based on product and development priorities
Develop clean, maintainable, and scalable code

Product & Feature Development

Work closely with the founder to translate the product vision into technical requirements
Evaluate feature ideas from both a technical and user-experience perspective
Help determine the most effective way to implement new functionality
Build prototypes and production-ready features
Iterate quickly based on product feedback and user needs
Identify technical limitations or risks before they become larger development issues

Software Architecture

Contribute to architectural decisions as the application grows
Help establish scalable development patterns and technical standards
Evaluate tradeoffs between development speed, maintainability, performance, and scalability
Design systems capable of supporting future product functionality
Recommend appropriate technologies and technical approaches when needed

Testing, Debugging & Quality

Test new features before deployment
Troubleshoot bugs and technical issues across the application
Diagnose root causes rather than relying on temporary fixes
Review and improve existing code when necessary
Maintain strong standards around application reliability and performance
Help establish appropriate testing and QA practices

AI-Assisted Development

Leverage AI coding tools where they genuinely improve development speed and productivity
Critically review and validate AI-generated code before implementation
Debug and modify generated solutions independently
Recognize when AI-generated approaches are technically inappropriate or inefficient
Maintain engineering quality regardless of whether AI tools are used during development
AI tools should enhance the candidate's engineering abilities, not replace them.

Technical Documentation

Document important architecture, features, integrations, and technical decisions
Maintain clear development documentation as the application evolves
Ensure future developers can understand and contribute to the codebase
Communicate technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to non-technical stakeholders

Requirements:

2–5 years of professional software engineering or software development experience
Proven experience building and shipping real software products or applications
Strong understanding of core software engineering principles
Experience developing production-quality applications
Strong understanding of application architecture and software design
Ability to write clean, maintainable, and scalable code
Strong debugging and technical problem-solving skills
Experience working with databases, APIs, and modern application development
Ability to independently evaluate technical approaches and engineering tradeoffs
Comfortable working in an early-stage product environment where requirements may evolve
Strong written and verbal English communication skills
Ability to work independently and take ownership of development projects

Preferred Qualifications:

Previous experience building SaaS or consumer applications
Experience developing productivity, project management, task management, planning, or workflow software
Experience working within an early-stage startup or founder-led environment
Full-stack development experience
Experience building products from an early or MVP stage
Familiarity with modern cloud infrastructure and deployment practices
Experience integrating third-party APIs and services
Familiarity with AI-assisted software development tools
Experience contributing to product and architecture decisions rather than exclusively working from predefined development tickets

Engineering Expectations:

The ideal candidate should be able to demonstrate real project experience and strong engineering fundamentals.

Candidates should be prepared to discuss:

Applications or products they have personally built
Their specific contributions to previous projects
Technical architecture and design decisions
Difficult engineering problems they have solved
How they approach debugging and troubleshooting
Technical tradeoffs they have made
How they ensure code quality and maintainability
How they use AI development tools without becoming dependent on them
A strong portfolio, GitHub profile, shipped applications, or other examples of previous engineering work are highly valuable.

Technology & Tools:

The exact technology stack may continue to evolve as the product develops. Candidates should therefore have strong overall software engineering fundamentals rather than being dependent on one particular framework.

Relevant experience may include:
Frontend application development
Backend development
Databases
REST APIs
Third-party integrations
Cloud infrastructure
Git and version control
Testing and debugging tools
AI-assisted development tools

What This Role Offers

Opportunity to help build a new software product from an early stage
Direct influence over product development and technical decisions
Close collaboration with the founder
High level of ownership over features and engineering projects
Ability to shape the technical foundation of a growing application
Opportunity to build technology connecting everyday productivity with long-term personal goals
Potential for increased technical ownership as the product and engineering function grow

Ideal Candidate Profile

True software engineer with strong technical fundamentals
Builder who enjoys turning early product concepts into working software
Capable of operating independently without requiring detailed instructions for every task
Product-minded and interested in understanding why a feature is being built, not simply how to code it
Comfortable making technical decisions and explaining the reasoning behind them
Resourceful when encountering unfamiliar engineering problems
Uses AI as a productivity tool while maintaining the ability to engineer solutions independently
Interested in working closely with a founder in a fast-moving product environment
Takes ownership of code quality, reliability, and long-term maintainability

Success Metrics

Quality and reliability of software delivered
Speed of feature development and iteration
Ability to translate product concepts into functional features
Code quality and maintainability
Application performance and stability
Effectiveness in debugging and resolving technical issues
Quality of architectural and technical decisions
Independence and ownership of development projects
Ability to effectively use AI tools without sacrificing engineering quality
Overall contribution to successfully launching and scaling the productivity application

NOTE: We prioritize the processing of one application at a time. If you have applied for multiple job openings within our organization, we kindly request that you direct any update inquiries to the team responsible for handling your initial application.

PLEASE NOTE:

→ We are looking for candidates based in South Africa (Preference for Cape Town, but open to global
→ Please note that we process only one active application at a time—if you’ve applied for multiple roles, kindly direct any updates to the team handling your first application.
→ To start processing, submit your resume in English.
→ The final offer will be at the client’s discretion and will depend on your interview performance, skills, and experience.

Senior Software Engineer - 63251274034