Founding Product Engineer

About Mercora

Commodity traders run large, risky businesses on email, Excel and legacy systems that record trades without doing anything with them. Mercora is reinventing how physical traders run their business. It is a full AI-native operating system: a system of record that does the work for you, not the other way around. Software in this market is archaic, and we are building what's missing.

Why this role exists

The whole team is technical, and everyone writes code, including the CEO. As Mercora moves from MVP to a complete product, the CEO's focus is starting to shift to go-to-market. That's where you come in. We need someone who fully owns product and engineering: someone who decides how the platform fits together, sets the standard, and builds it to scale.

What you'll own

• The technical vision and roadmap for the operating system, and how it scales from a handful of trading firms to hundreds
• Product and engineering: what gets built, in what order, and to what standard
• The engineering team: how it works, how it ships, and who joins next
• Security, reliability and data protection that trading firms and their IT teams trust with their trade data
• The technical voice with customers and partners

You'll still write code.

How we work

These are the rules we already work by:

• Everyone ships, everyone talks to customers. There are no layers between the people building the product and the traders using it, and that includes this role.
• Solve the problem, not the ticket. A ticket is a first guess. Work out what the trader actually needs, and change the plan when it's wrong.
• The system does the work, a person signs off. In a trading business any decision can carry a large financial impact, so nothing reaches a trade record, a broker or a bank without a human approving it. Move fast at the edges, keep the core robust.
• We don't overclaim. Not to customers, not to investors, not to each other. "Done" means it works in production. If it doesn't, you fix it.
• No hierarchies, only responsibilities. Everyone owns something end to end, and whoever owns it makes the call.

What we're looking for

• High agency. You think problems through, push back when the plan is wrong, and work out what should actually be built.
• Strong product thinking. You understand the user's workflow before you design the system. You know what to build, what to cut and what to say no to, and you measure whether it worked.
• Commercial instinct. You care about what moves the needle for customers, not just what's technically interesting.
• Ownership. You've owned something bigger than your own code, and people want to build with you.
• Top-tier engineering. You set the bar the rest of the team builds to.
• Zero to one. You've taken a product from idea to real users. Personal projects count.
• AI-native. You've shipped AI products to real users, not just demos, and you know where models are reliable and where they aren't.
• Clear communication. You can explain a technical decision to a customer's IT team as clearly as to the traders who use the product every day.

Nice to have

• You've built a B2B system of record, such as an ERP or fintech platform
• You've worked somewhere like Palantir
• Side projects with real traction: users, stars or downloads
• Knowledge of commodity trading or trade finance

You don't need commodities experience, but you learn a dense domain fast. We'll teach you the domain, and you'll spend time with the traders and ops teams who use the product.

Probably not for you if

• You want a finished spec and a quiet roadmap
• You'd rather manage people than build
• You need a big team or a big budget around you

What you get

• Salary plus significant founding-team equity
• Full technical autonomy: you pick the tools and own the architecture
• Fully remote
• Direct work with the founding team and with the traders and ops teams who use the product every day

Our stack

TypeScript, Python and Postgres on AWS and Azure, with LLMs through AWS Bedrock. Where it goes next is your call.

How we hire

1. An intro call
2. A deep dive into what you've built and led
3. A paid working session on a real problem
4. Time with the team
5. References, then an offer within two weeks

To apply, email [email protected] with a link to something you built and a few lines on the team or system you're proudest of.