Founding Engineer

Doorman is hiring its first full-time engineer. They’re not hiring for a position; they want an “all-around athlete” who can play any position, is highly adaptable (the problems will change in 3 months), and can be handed a problem and figure it out — including learning new tech fast (the founders had to learn new frameworks to build the product). The proof points to build: reliable attendance writeback to every major SIS and onboarding a new district in days, not weeks.

The core technical work: agentic/automation systems that integrate with legacy school infrastructure — many SIS platforms (Aspen, Genesis, Rediker) have no public API for writing attendance back, so you’re effectively “making APIs out of Web 1.0,” with browser agents running in isolated browsers that async-pull data between systems, lots of race conditions (concurrent read/write), and gnarly system design across two data sources. Plus the mobile app and enforcement layer (Flutter across iOS/Android: Focus Mode via network-layer VPN restriction, Lockdown Mode via iOS single-app mode + Android accessibility services — right at the edge of what platforms allow), and end-to-end architecture with the CTO (stack: Firebase/Firestore, Express.js on Google Cloud Run, Cloud Tasks, Next.js, Flutter). You’ll also be customer-facing — on calls with principals, teachers, and IT directors, shipping based on what you hear, and eventually owning whole parts of the product (like the SIS integration layer) end to end, setting its roadmap with the founders.

The most important spike: backend architecture — not being afraid to architect the backend, strong system design, and working reliably across messy legacy data sources (reliability/SRE a strong plus, since schools depend on it bell-to-bell). A secondary valued spike is polished UX. Their stated preference right now is a promising junior (hackathon-winner archetype, ~new grad to ~1 year, hungry, adaptable, articulate) for team cohesion — willing to hand-hold a bit if they learn fast — though a genuinely proven senior (2–3 yrs big-company or startup head-of-eng) pushes comp higher.

What You’ll Do

• Build agentic/automation systems integrating with legacy SIS platforms (Aspen, Genesis, Rediker) for reliable attendance writeback + onboarding automation
• Build and harden the Flutter app (iOS/Android) — Focus Mode (VPN/network-layer) and Lockdown Mode (iOS single-app / Android accessibility)
• Architect systems, infra, and databases for scale with the CTO (Firebase/Firestore, Express/Cloud Run, Cloud Tasks, Next.js, Flutter)
• Work directly with customers (principals, teachers, IT directors) and ship on what you hear; own whole product areas (e.g., the SIS integration layer) and set their roadmap

Requirements

• Shipped production software end to end; comfortable owning whole systems, not one slice
• Backend architecture spike (the #1) — strong system design, unafraid to architect the backend, reliable work across messy/legacy multi-source data (race conditions, async)
• Reliability mindset — uptime, monitoring, graceful failure (SRE/infra a strong plus)
• Learns new tech/frameworks fast and applies it to novel problems
• Plus: K-12 edtech, SIS platforms, iOS/Android system-level APIs, agentic/browser automation; a polished-UX spike is the valued secondary (Stack: Firebase/Firestore, Express.js/Cloud Run, Cloud Tasks, Next.js, Flutter — adaptability over exact stack match)

Execution and Ownership

• All-around athlete — adaptable, high-agency, figure-it-out, owns outcomes not tasks
• Think and articulate sharply on the spot (a gap that cost the last work-trial candidate — they now test live reasoning)
• Wants to talk to users, make product calls, be accountable
• Startup-intensity: school-year deadlines, some late weeks; in-person NYC every day; willing to travel to schools and walk the halls
• Takes very direct feedback well (the CTO is extremely blunt); honest about what systems can/can’t do

Background & Fit

• Preference now: promising junior — hackathon-winner archetype, ~new grad to ~1 yr, hungry, adaptable, articulate (team cohesion); proven seniors welcome at higher comp
• Mission fit — genuine sense that K-12/edtech is a meaningful, underserved space worth great talent (not a family-of-teachers literal thing)
• Genuine tech curiosity — spends spare time studying new frontier tech (e.g., why a newly-funded database’s infra is better) — important to the CTO
• Clear spoken English communication (daily customer-facing calls)