Talis Consulting Group is currently seeking a Lead Product Engineer/Developer for a well-funded, mission-driven startup that is building an AI-first, production-grade platform that supports caseworkers and professionals serving vulnerable populations. Our software is mission-critical: it must be secure, reliable, fast to evolve, and worthy of user trust.
We move quickly, ship often, and use AI aggressively across our development workflow. We care deeply about outcomes, judgment, and learning velocity.
The Role
We are hiring a Lead Product Engineer/Developer to own the development of our core user-facing portal end to end.
This is a senior, hands-on role with real authority and accountability. You will shape architecture, influence product behavior, and drive features from idea to production.
This role is not about writing every line of code by hand. It is about owning outcomes in production—and improving the systems, processes, and tooling that make delivery possible.
In a small, senior team, this person functions as a technical owner of how software gets built.
Scope of Ownership
This role owns more than feature delivery.
You will co-own the full software development lifecycle (SDLC) with the Director of Product and Technology, including:
- Development workflows and standards
- Tooling and platform choices
- AI-assisted development practices
- Quality, release, and operational guardrails
What Success Looks Like
You succeed in this role when:
- Features move from ideas to production quickly
- Production deployments are routine and reliable
- Automation increases velocity without sacrificing trust
- Problems are faced early and addressed decisively
- The system becomes easier to change over time
Responsibilities
- Own the end-to-end development of our portal, including production health
- Define and evolve frontend and backend architecture
- Build and ship production software using a TypeScript-first stack
- Operate confidently in a hybrid data environment (SQL + NoSQL)
- Be accountable for production outcomes: functionality, performance, security, reliability, and cost
- Design, configure, and evolve AI-assisted development workflows
- Make and revisit tooling decisions as the product and team evolve
- Collaborate directly with product, UX, and leadership as a peer
- Lead or support 2–3 engineers as the team grows (hands-on leadership, not bureaucracy)
- Monitor operational impact, including AWS cost and system behavior
- Push back when something isn’t right—technically, operationally, or product-wise
Required Experience
- Senior-level full-stack engineering experience typically 8+ years
- Proven ownership of customer-facing production systems end to end
- Strong experience with modern backend systems (Node.js preferred)
- React-based frontend development
- Cloud-native deployment and operations (AWS preferred)
- Experience designing or operating secure authentication and authorization systems
- Comfort working across relational and NoSQL data models
- Hands-on experience using AI-assisted development tools in real production work (e.g., Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code)
- Strong systems thinking across frontend, backend, data, and infrastructure
This position will initially be a W2 hourly contract-to-hire role. Upon conversion to full-time employment, the expected base salary range is $150,000–$200,000, depending on experience and fit.
This is a remote role based in Seattle. While the position is remote, the team meets in person occasionally, so preference will be given to candidates located in the Seattle area.
No C2C or third-party agencies.
Candidate must be authorized to work and reside in the United States; we do not currently sponsor immigration visas.
