Technical Co-Founder / Lead Software Engineer — DinnerMapper

Technical Co-Founder / Lead Software Engineer — DinnerMapper

Location: Remote
Commitment: Full-time; start date and any transition period to be agreed
Compensation: No salary initially. Contractual profit sharing and/or cash-settled phantom units, or LLC ownership for a co-founder, subject to agreement. Future salary contingent on sufficient sustainable revenue or funding and mutual agreement.
DinnerMapper is an early-stage venture focused on creating distinctive offerings in the recipe-generation web space.

I’m seeking a hands-on lead software engineer interested in participating in the venture through either a contractual financial incentive arrangement or a co-founder ownership arrangement. You will help shape the product, make consequential technical decisions, and build the business alongside a founder with extensive software development, database, and project management experience.

The working relationship
You will take primary responsibility for engineering execution, working with me to define a practical initial release and turn it into a reliable product. I will remain responsible for DevOps, product requirements, partnerships, and business operations.
We will agree on the role, compensation structure, priorities, decision-making responsibilities, time commitments, and milestones before work begins. A co-founder arrangement would include agreed ownership rights; a contractual incentive arrangement would not confer LLC membership or ownership.

What you will do as part of the team
• Review the product requirements and technical development specification; identify assumptions, dependencies, and opportunities to simplify.
• Define an achievable minimum viable product and development roadmap.
• Lead architecture and hands-on implementation across the application, APIs, and database; partner with the founder on DevOps, deployment, and release readiness.
• Implement secure authentication, server-side authorization, protection of private and restricted content, and practical security testing.
• Establish practical testing, source control, documentation, and release processes.
• Help evaluate product decisions through user feedback and actual usage.
• Manage technical trade-offs and operating costs.
• Help recruit and guide additional contributors as the venture grows.

What you bring
• Experience shipping and maintaining production software.
• Strong full-stack engineering skills, including application development, APIs, relational databases, and cloud deployment.
• The ability to turn broad requirements into focused, incremental releases.
• Sound judgment about when to build, buy, simplify, or defer.
• Clear communication, reliable follow-through, and comfort discussing disagreements constructively.
• Interest in the business and its users, as well as its technology.
• Capacity to make a consistent, agreed-upon commitment to an early-stage venture.

Technology and technical experience
Core skills
• Strong Python development skills.
• Strong Next.js, React, and TypeScript development skills.
• PostgreSQL and SQL, including schema design, query optimization, and migrations.
• API design, implementation, integration, and security.
• Secure handling of user data and access-controlled content.
Preferred experience
• Application deployment and operation on AWS and Railway.
• Effective use of ChatGPT and Claude for development, with responsibility for reviewing, testing, and securing generated code.
• Integration of AI model APIs into production applications, including output validation, error handling, and cost management.

Compensation and potential ownership
No salary is currently available. We are open to discussing either of the following arrangements:
• Technical lead with contractual financial participation: Profit sharing and/or cash-settled phantom units. Profit sharing would provide compensation based on defined profits. Phantom units would provide a contractual right to cash compensation linked to company value or appreciation, subject to agreed conditions. These arrangements would not confer LLC membership, actual ownership, or ownership voting rights.
• Technical co-founder with ownership: An actual ownership interest in the LLC, with the ownership percentage, vesting schedule, responsibilities, and decision rights agreed upon and documented.
The selected arrangement will reflect the scope of the role, contributions, time commitment, and risk. Applicable terms—including calculation methods, vesting or earning conditions, payout timing and triggers, and treatment upon departure or sale of the business—will be documented before work begins.

Any arrangement will be subject to applicable employment and tax requirements in the participant’s location.

Our intention is to introduce salary when the business has sufficient sustainable revenue or funding. The amount and start date will be mutually agreed upon. No salary start date is guaranteed, and any incentive payout will depend on the conditions in the signed agreement.

How to express interest
Send:
• A brief introduction and why DinnerMapper interests you.
• Links to products you have built, a portfolio, or relevant code you can share.
• Your role in one project you helped take from concept to production.
• Your country of residence, time zone, availability, and expected weekly commitment.
• Whether you are interested in a technical lead role with contractual financial participation or a co-founder role with ownership, including your compensation or ownership expectations.
An initial conversation will cover product fit, working style, technical experience, the proposed arrangement, and expectations on both sides.