Junior founding engineer

**The mission** Every year, over a million people move to the US on work visas. They're smart, ambitious, and excited—and then they land and realize the US is no longer made for newcomers. It's overwhelming. The information is scattered across government websites, Reddit threads, and outdated blog posts. Every situation is slightly different, and one wrong step can cost weeks. **SettleKit fixes this.** We're building an app that guides immigrants through US settlement step\-by\-step and use AI to automate it. **We're early\-stage and have multi\-year runway. We need a salaried Founding Engineer to help us build this.** **The role** You'll be our primary full\-time engineer, working directly with me (Max, co\-founder). We're a small team—you'll have real ownership from day one: * **Building features end\-to\-end.** Our app is React on the frontend, Node.js/Express on the backend, PostgreSQL via (currently) Supabase. * **Working on our AI research pipeline.** We use LLMs to generate workflow content from source documents * **Thinking, not just executing** **What's next for SettleKit and You** Right now, the app is in closed beta. Here's where we're heading: * **AI\-powered actions.** We want to go beyond telling users what to do. Think: AI that helps fill out government forms, generates document checklists, or drafts emails to employers... * **Mobile app.** Vs. today's webapp * **Broader coverage** **What we're looking for** **1\. Must have:** * Experience with graph\-based, tree, or conditional logic systems—our core product is a decision graph that adapts to each user's situation * 2\+ years building with React and Node.js (or similar full\-stack experience) * Comfortable with TypeScript and SQL * You've shipped real products * Strong communication in English—we work async\-first * Based in Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, or similar)—we're focused on LATAM for timezone overlap with NYC and the strong engineering talent in the region **2\. Nice to have:** * Experience with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Gemini, Claude) * Mobile development experience (React Native or native iOS/Android) * You've seen immigration complexity firsthand, or know people who have **3\. What matters more than credentials:** * You figure things out * You write clean code * You're excited about the mission **Why this role** * **Founding team.** You'll work directly with the founder. Your code ships to real users immediately * **Build something that matters.** Immigration is broken. Help doctors, scientists, engineers, ... settle fast in the US so they can focus on their life and work * **Learn by building production AI systems.** You'll get hands\-on experience building real LLM\-powered products * **(Almost) no AI slop.** The product has so far been developed by human engineers, supported by Cursor/Claude * **Compensation:** Full\-time salaried position, above market rate depending on experience.