Founding Software Engineer
About the job
We help businesses respond to complex paperwork and questionnaires that companies send out when they're choosing vendors - the kind that used to take days or even weeks to complete.
In just 3 years, we've built technology that turns a 900-question form from a multi-day nightmare into a 2-hour task. Our rapid growth (10-20% every month) landed us on the Courier Mail's Unicorn Watch List and won Queensland AI Startup of the Year 2024. Now we're scaling quickly to become the undisputed leader in our category and have a vision of building the largest AI-first company in Brisbane.
On any given Tuesday, our platform might be helping satellite companies win new contracts, handling long security questionnaires for Silicon Valley tech firms, or managing due diligence checklists for major Wall Street funds. Sales teams that used to dread these projects now look forward to them. One customer even said their team feels "joy" starting a new one, with another saying "AutoRFP.ai has been one of the most life changing tools that I've used in my career."
Read their stories → autorfp.ai/customer-stories
What makes this role interesting
AutoRFP.ai is an AI-native product - not a traditional SaaS with AI bolted on. Every part of the stack, from document ingestion and search through to answer generation and review workflows, is built around language models and retrieval systems. That means even "standard" engineering work here touches problems most teams never encounter.
You'll ship features that go live to Fortune 500 companies in weeks, not quarters. The surface area is broad: one sprint you might be building a new collaboration workflow for reviewers, the next you could be improving how we parse and structure incoming documents, or wiring up a new integration. The codebase is modern, the feedback loops are short, and the problems are genuinely interesting.
The growth path here is concrete. You'll work alongside experienced engineers who'll push you through code reviews, pairing, and real architectural discussions - but from day one you're shipping work that customers see, not sitting on the sidelines building context for months. Engineers who've joined at this level have taken on full feature ownership within their first quarter.
What you'll do
Build and ship product features across the full development cycle - from implementation through to deployment and monitoring
Work across the full stack in a modern TypeScript/Node.js codebase
Write clean, well-tested code and maintain a high bar for what gets merged
Diagnose and fix production issues - distinguishing between application bugs, infrastructure problems, and upstream data issues
Contribute to technical decisions about how features should be built, and push back when a proposed approach doesn't hold up
Collaborate closely with product and design to turn customer problems into working software
As you grow into the role, act as a buddy for new starters and informally mentor more junior developers as the engineering team scales
What good looks like
First week: Ship a PR to production - ideally day one. Meet the team and start watching customer calls to understand how people actually use the platform. Get oriented on the codebase, conventions, and how we work.
First month: Shipping scoped tickets confidently across multiple areas of the codebase. You've picked up our patterns and conventions and follow them naturally. When something isn't clear - a ticket is underspecified, a requirement doesn't add up - you ask early rather than building on assumptions.
First 3 months: Consistently delivering moderate-to-complex work that customers notice. You're providing useful input to how features get technically scoped, helping the team think through edge cases and tradeoffs - not just picking up what's handed to you. You deliver incrementally - a useful improvement today, then iterate - rather than disappearing into a large piece of work. Your code reviews are thoughtful and your PRs land cleanly.
First 6 months: One of the engineers others want to work with. You've developed real depth in at least one area of the codebase and you use that context to make good calls. You're a reliable buddy for new starters, you spot when junior developers are heading down a rabbit hole, and you've earned enough trust through shipped work that your opinions on how things should be built carry weight.
What we're looking for
We care less about your specific background and more about what your experience has made you. The best engineers at this level have shipped enough software to be pragmatic about it - they're comfortable getting something useful into production today rather than holding out for the ideal solution, and they know the difference between cutting corners and making sensible tradeoffs.
Confident across the stack - You have a T-shaped profile: comfortable working anywhere in the codebase, with real depth in at least one area. You're not precious about whether a task is "frontend", "backend", or "infra". Your PRs rarely need structural rework.
Effective debugger - You read logs and traces before forming theories. When something breaks, you narrow down the problem methodically in the parts of the codebase you know - and you ask good questions before diving into the parts you don't.
Clear communicator - You explain technical decisions to your peers in a way that makes sense. You push back constructively when a ticket is underspecified or an approach feels off - but when a decision is made, you commit and ship.
Ownership without ego - You hold yourself to a high standard. When you ship a bug, you catch it before customers do and start fixing it. You write tests that actually matter. But you also take feedback well, change your mind when the evidence warrants it, and invest time understanding how things work before pushing to change them.
Our stack is TypeScript and Node.js, with React on the frontend and AWS infrastructure. You don't need to have worked with all of these before - we care more about your ability to learn fast and ship well - but comfort in at least some of the following will help you ramp faster:
TypeScript and Node.js in production
Modern frontend frameworks (React or similar)
Cloud infrastructure (AWS) and CI/CD pipelines
Working with LLMs or AI-powered product features
Document processing, search, or data pipelines
Monitoring and observability (Prometheus, Grafana, or similar)
Backgrounds that would be a strong fit
We're open-minded about where you're coming from. Some paths that map well:
Full-stack product engineers who've shipped user-facing features at a startup or high-growth company - you know how to move fast without making a mess.
Backend engineers who've built APIs, data pipelines, or integrations and want to work closer to the product - you understand systems and can pick up the domain quickly.
Frontend-leaning engineers who are comfortable going deeper into the stack - you've built polished UIs and want to own more of what sits behind them.
Engineers from AI-adjacent teams who've worked alongside ML systems or built tooling for AI products - you've seen how these systems behave in production and want to get closer to the core product.
What won't you get?
Layers of approval before shipping
A narrowly scoped role where you only touch one part of the stack
Months to build context before you're expected to contribute
Work that's disconnected from real customer outcomes
Details
Location: Brisbane - this is a full-time, in-office role
Type: Full-time, permanent
Salary: $150k+ base depending on experience + super + performance bonus
Further benefits
Equipment - Latest MacBooks, massive 49" 5k screens, and whatever else makes you effective
Learning budget - Courses, conferences, books - if it makes you better, we'll cover it
Direct customer access - See how your work affects real workflows
Global reach - Opportunities to visit customers worldwide as we expand
Great office, great location - Brisbane CBD, easy transport, a space people actually enjoy
High-impact work - Small team, real ownership, and features that ship to Fortune 500 companies