Founding Engineer (Full-Time)

About Us

Contrarian Thinking is building the infrastructure layer for modern entrepreneurs.

We already have attention.

Now we're turning it into software.

The goal: Take someone from "I want to buy/build a business" → "I did it" faster than anyone else.

Role

This is our first in-house engineering hire, and it sets the bar for every one after it.

You're in the code every day. This is a hands-on engineering role. What sets it apart is the range and the level you operate at. You hold the whole picture: the frontend, the backend, the data layer, the platform it runs on, and the web of integrations that ties it all together. You can drop into any of it, and you're the person the specialist engineers we're hiring (data, platform/DevOps, full-stack) come to when they're stuck.

You think in systems: how the pieces fit, where they'll break, and what to build now so we're not paying for it in six months. You run with high ownership and high autonomy, you don't wait for a spec or for permission to fix what's broken, and you bring that same clarity to the people working alongside you. You scope work across a distributed engineering team and outside vendors, review what comes back, keep them unblocked across time zones, set the standard, and guide the specialists in their own areas. You do all of it as the senior engineer in the room, not as a manager above it. When something is half-built, you open the repo, fix it, and leave the codebase better than you found it.

What You'll Do

• Build hands-on across the stack: React, TypeScript, and Tailwind on the front end, Laravel on the back end, and the GCP and CI/CD that ship it
• Range across the whole system, not just the app: the data layer (BigQuery, dbt, pipelines), the platform and infrastructure (GCP, Terraform, Auth0, CI/CD), and the integrations with HubSpot at the center
• Make the architecture and tooling calls the rest of the team builds on
• Guide and level the specialist engineers we're hiring (data, platform/DevOps, full-stack): review their work, set the standard, and step into their area when they need it
• Think in systems: design how the pieces fit, see where they'll break, and build now to avoid pain later
• Translate fuzzy direction from leadership into clear, scoped, buildable work
• Turn product ideas into working features in days, not weeks
• Use AI tooling to move faster across coding, reviews, and reporting
• Refactor, test, and pay down debt as you go

Tech Environment

• Frontend: React, TypeScript, Tailwind, React Query (TanStack Query)
• Backend: Laravel (PHP), plus Python and Node services across the system
• Data: BigQuery, PostgreSQL, dbt, Fivetran, reverse ETL back into business tools
• Platform & Cloud: GCP, Terraform, Docker, CI/CD (GitHub Actions), Auth0
• Integrations: HubSpot as the hub, tied to payments, identity, learning, and comms (SamCart, Stripe, DocuSign, Twilio, Slack, Moodle, QuickBooks)
• Tooling: AI-assisted dev (e.g. Claude, Cursor or similar)

Note: nobody is an expert in all of this, and you don't need to be. If you've got real range across the stack and the systems around it, you'll pick up the rest fast.

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years building and shipping software in production, with real range across the stack and the systems around it
• Breadth across domains: frontend, backend, the data layer, and the platform it runs on. You're likely strongest in one or two, but you can operate and make sound calls in all of them, and guide a specialist in each
• You've been the senior or anchoring engineer on a team: coordinating other engineers, reviewing their work, and setting the standard they build to, including across time zones
• You think in systems, not tickets: you see how the whole thing fits and where it will break
• High ownership and high autonomy, and you bring clarity to the people who need it
• Strong with React, TypeScript, and modern frontend tooling (Tailwind, React Query or similar)
• Solid back-end experience in Laravel, or a comparable framework you can translate from quickly
• Comfortable in the data layer: strong SQL, a warehouse like BigQuery, and modeling and pipelines (dbt or similar)
• Comfortable with the platform: GCP, containers, infrastructure as code (Terraform), CI/CD, and identity (Auth0 or similar)
• Strong with RESTful APIs and the architecture that connects systems and third-party tools
• You can drop into an unfamiliar or monolithic codebase and refactor, test, and improve it
• TDD and automated testing are part of how you work
• You care about outcomes: live product, real usage, systems that don't fall over

Strong Signals

• You've been the first or one of the first engineers somewhere and shaped how the team built
• You've coordinated or anchored other engineers, including offshore or across time zones
• You've built across domains: shipped product, owned a data pipeline, and stood up infrastructure, not just one of the three
• Set architecture or standards that other engineers followed
• Built and launched something 0 to 1
• Strong OOP and functional programming fundamentals, with a real sense of the tradeoffs
• Familiar with domain-driven design (DDD) and service-oriented architecture (SOA)
• Worked in an integration-heavy environment with many third-party systems and a real source-of-truth problem to manage
• Startup, solo builder, or high-ownership environment

Not a Fit If

• You can't work onsite in Austin, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
• You want a management or exec seat where you step back from building
• You're deep in one specialty, but can't operate or make calls outside it
• You only want to code heads-down and never coordinate, review, or guide others
• You need detailed specs or hand-holding to get moving
• You think in tickets, not systems
• You optimize for perfect code over shipped code
• You've only ever been one cog in a large, slow-moving team

Success Looks Like

• The specialist engineers (data, platform, full-stack) are faster and sharper because you're guiding, reviewing, and unblocking them
• How we build is better because you set the standard
• Features ship daily and weekly, not monthly
• Architecture decisions hold up instead of becoming next year's tech debt
• Leadership trusts you to turn a vague goal into shipped product
• Products that actually get used, with clear impact on growth and revenue

Your First 30 Days

By day 7

• Your dev environment is set up and you've shipped your first change to a core product
• You understand the product, the codebase, and how the distributed team works
• You've mapped where the system is solid and where it's fragile, across the app, the data, and the platform

By day 14

• You're owning a product area end-to-end, frontend through backend
• You're reviewing the team's work and raising the bar
• You've made your first call on architecture or standards

By day 30

• You navigate the codebase independently and ship at a level others learn from.
• You've set at least one standard or pattern the team now follows.
• You're the person the distributed team and leadership both rely on.
• You've found the biggest systemic risks and started fixing them.

Why Join

• Founding engineer: you shape how engineering works here from day one
• Work across the whole system, not a narrow slice, and set the bar others build to
• Senior scope and full autonomy, while staying hands-on in the code
• High ownership, low bureaucracy
• Direct line to leadership, product, and the users who depend on it

Screening Process

• Round 1 (call): alignment, background, and technical questions
• Take-Home Test: take a real product idea, or a messy part of an existing system. Outline the architecture, how you'd ship it, and what you'd refactor. Focus: systems thinking, decisions, ownership. We review every submission, and only strong ones move forward
• Deep Dive (45 min): walk through your solution and your thinking live, including how you'd coordinate and review a distributed team building it
• Final Rounds: a few more conversations with the team before a final decision

Benefits

• Health Coverage: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans to support you and your family
• 401(k) with Company Match: Competitive match to help you build long-term financial security
• Flexible Time Off: Take the time you need to perform at a high level, no unnecessary constraints
• Ownership & Upside: Compensation is structured to reward impact, with meaningful performance-based upside tied to the success of the products and business
• Build Your Own Lane: Opportunity to take on increasing responsibility, lead initiatives, and shape the direction of the company as it grows

Location

Austin, TX · Full-Time

Onsite in Austin, Texas, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.