Location
New York, New York
Salary
$185,000 - $250,000
Type
Full-Time
TL;DR
- Strong backend + real product taste
- Owns product end-to-end; no PM handing tickets
- Berkeley/CMU/Waterloo/GTech tier-1
- startup or top/fast big-tech team
About Asha Health
Asha Health is building an AI OS for outpatient care — a bet on what comes after the current wave of AI-agent-for-healthcare startups. Backed by Y Combinator, General Catalyst, 186 Ventures, Reach Capital, and others (an oversubscribed seed round), with a team that includes AI product leaders from Google, engineering talent from Brex, and physician executives from major health systems. The core bet: while nearly every AI-healthcare company builds a point agent (prior auth, etc.) that integrates into dozens of legacy EHRs, Asha does the hard thing the system eventually converges on, becoming its own AI-native EHR and operating system, the software and even hardware to run a clinic on autopilot. Akshay estimates under five companies in the country have cracked this recipe; in medical verticals where providers do not switch EHRs for 20 to 25 years, they are switching onto Asha. That is the secret sauce.
About This Role
Asha is hiring two builders: genuinely strong backend engineers who also have product sense and act as their own PM, designer, and user researcher. Akshay’s core thesis: as models evolve, the industry is splitting, and the people who win are strong engineers who can pick up product and UX taste. The single biggest problem he sees in interviews is engineers who have coded their whole lives but whose product sense is off they throw things on a screen users would never touch. He does not need front-end engineers; he needs strong backend engineers with real product taste. You get full influence and ownership of product (deciding what to build, why, and how) rather than a PM handing you tickets.
What You’ll Own
- Build across the AI-native EHR / operating system, with strong backend as the core
- Act as your own PM, designer, and user researcher: talk to customers, decide what to build and how, own the product surface
- Conquer technical debt and the onboarding burden so the sales motion never has to pause
- Ship on the bleeding edge of applied AI (research, experiment, then ship), at startup speed
- Full product influence and ownership working daily with the CEO, CTO, and CMO
Requirements
- Top Bachelor’s in computer science or a related/EECS degree
- Very strong backend engineering, ideally in 0-1 or 1-10 environments (not a front-end hire)
- A genuine builder: can understand users, make product decisions, and ship without a PM defining every step
- Real product/UX taste (the scarce, decisive trait); bonus if they did ~1 year of PM on top of engineering
- Comfortable building AI products using AI tools daily, on the bleeding edge
Execution and Ownership
- Raw intelligence / learns extremely fast (the atomic-level must)
- Clear motivation: taking a real hit (or forgoing higher market value) to join seed for passion, not comp
- Ships at uncomfortable startup speed (“20x” big-tech pace)
- Wants significantly more ownership than their current role gives
- A “bone to pick” with how broken healthcare is
Background (Akshay’s stated signal filters, non-exclusive)
- Experience ~2 to 7 years. Professional experience matters more than school.
- Preferred company signal: venture-backed startups (any stage, including scrappy super-early), OR exceptional big-tech (Meta/Google-tier) who clearly pass the motivation test. Caution on 1-2-year big-tech (motivation often absent). Worked at a startup (Seed to Series E) is a plus.
- School signal: strongest fit historically from Berkeley, CMU, Waterloo, Georgia Tech; next tier UW, UIUC, UMich, Princeton. CS/EECS degree weighted.
- Akshay is explicit he wants diamonds in the rough who miss the filters but are cracked, surfaced anyway for him to assess on a call.
Who Will Thrive Here
- A strong backend engineer with real product taste who wants to own product end to end, no PM handing them tickets
- Someone who could command a much higher big-tech offer but chooses seed out of genuine passion
- A fast learner who ships at uncomfortable speed and builds for fun on their own time
- Mission-driven about fixing a catastrophic healthcare system
- Excited by a bleeding-edge, moonshot, engineering-is-the-number-one-lever bet
Job Details
Experience
2-7 Years
Salary
$185,000 - $250,000
Equity
0.5% - 1.25%
Visa Sponsorship
Limited
Employment Type
Full-Time
Work Arrangement
In office
Work Intensity
9-9-6
Benefits & Perks
Insurance
Beautiful Office
Green Flags
Built something to significant revenue themselves
SWE plus ~1 year PM (product intensity drilled in)
Could command a much higher big-tech offer but chooses seed
Red Flags
Strong coder, weak product sense
Front-end-only or needs a PM to define every step
1-2-year big-tech with no motivation signal / joins for comp
Candidate scorecard
· 4 criteriaTop CS degree
Real product/UX taste; builds without needing a PM
Strong backend fundamentals (0-1, 1-10)