Founding Engineer (San Francisco)

Company Description www.spkn.app Spoken is a first-of-its-kind social commerce marketplace powered by real consumers and their genuine connections. We turn everyday word-of-mouth moments into a scalable sales engine for brands—without influencers, ads, or the noise of traditional social media. Our platform catalogs real purchases from real people, making them discoverable and shoppable by their friends. This means brands get lower acquisition costs, higher trust, and authentic engagement, while consumers get a safe, private space to share and shop with people they actually know. We’re pre-seed, early in our journey, and building for massive scale. This is an opportunity to join at the ground floor, shape the product, own major technical decisions, and directly influence the trajectory of the company. Role Description We’re looking for a Founding Engineer who can take Spoken from MVP to a robust, scalable platform. You’ll be responsible for: • Product Ownership – Leading technical architecture, system design, and development for our mobile and web applications. • Hands-On Development – Building new features, integrating AI-driven product recognition, and optimizing for speed, reliability, and scalability. • Technical Vision – Making key stack decisions and setting engineering best practices. • Rapid Iteration – Moving quickly from concept to deployment, testing and refining based on real-world user feedback. • Team Building – Hiring and mentoring the future engineering team. • Partnership – Working directly with the founder to align product and business strategy and sharing in both the responsibility and the upside. This is not just a job—it’s true founder-level involvement, with equity and the opportunity to shape a category-defining product. This is an “all-in” role so an appetite for problem solving and entrepreneurship is key! Qualifications Must-Haves • Proven experience building and shipping consumer-facing web or mobile applications. • Strong proficiency in React Native, Flutter or other similar cross-platform frameworks and backend development. • Ability to design, build, and deploy scalable APIs and databases. • Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure). • Strong problem-solving mindset and a bias toward action—comfortable in a fast-moving, high-ambiguity startup environment. • Entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to own outcomes. Nice-to-Haves • Experience with AI/ML integration (image recognition, recommendation engines). • Background in marketplace or e-commerce platforms. • Prior startup or founder experience. • Located in the SF Bay Area (preferred for in-person collaboration). Compensation: Significant equity stake (5-20% depending on experience). Guaranteed salary & benefits upon pre-seed funding secured. Location: San Francisco Bay Area (hybrid/remote possible for the right person). Stage: Pre-seed, MVP in development, fundraising in progress.