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Free JD template · Updated 2026-07-16

Founding Engineer job description template

An opinionated, copy-paste Founding Engineer JD used by founders in 2026. Edit the bracketed sections, ship it, and paste back for feedback. Or generate a version tailored to your company in 60 seconds.

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The template

**Founding Engineer at [Company]**

[One sentence on the market and why now.]

**About the role**
You will be our first engineering hire. You will own the stack end to end, ship the first version of [core product] to real users, and set the bar for every engineer who joins after you.

**In your first 90 days you will**
- Ship [specific first project] to production and to design partners.
- Set the CI/CD, observability, and on-call foundations.
- Sit in on customer calls with the founders and turn the top three requests into shipped changes.

**You are a great fit if you**
- Have shipped a real product from zero at a previous startup or side project.
- Read and write clean [language/framework] and reason about systems as well as UI.
- Move fast without waiting for a formal spec.

**You will love this if you want**
- A whole-product scope, not a narrow ticket queue.
- Direct customer contact and product influence.
- Real equity: [x.x]%–[y.y]% with double-trigger acceleration.

**Compensation**
[Base] + [equity] + [benefits].

**Location**
[Remote / London / New York / hybrid], with quarterly meet-ups.

How to use it

  1. Copy the template into your ATS or a fresh doc.
  2. Fill in every bracketed section with a specific, concrete answer.
  3. Read it out loud once. If a sentence sounds like an agency wrote it, rewrite it.
  4. Post it, and paste it into Startup Roles to get a shortlist calibrated against it.

The three things this template does differently

Names the risk
Senior candidates are pattern-matching for how honestly you describe the job. Vague responsibilities read as vague ownership.
Compensates directly
Real base and equity ranges up front outperform 'competitive' every time on senior reply rates.
First-90-days framing
Instead of a list of tasks, we describe the shape of the first quarter. Candidates self-select correctly.

Draft a tailored Founding Engineer JD in 60 seconds

Describe the role like you would to a friend. We handle the structure, tone, and pricing signals — you edit inline.

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