Senior Backend Engineer

Job Title: Founding Software Engineer

Package: $175K - $225K + meaningful equity

Location: New York City (5 days per week in office)

Launchpad Recruitment are partnering with a venture-backed AI fintech startup building the modern data platform for alternative investments. Backed by leading VCs and senior operators from firms including Goldman Sachs, they’re tackling a huge market still heavily reliant on spreadsheets and legacy systems.

They’re now hiring a Founding Software Engineer to join as employee #4 in New York.

This is a true 01 opportunity for an engineer who wants ownership, autonomy, and direct influence over both product and engineering culture from the ground floor.

The Role

You’ll work directly with the founders and design partners to build core infrastructure powering data management and workflows across alternative investments.

The role is heavily backend-focused, with exposure to product, customer workflows, infrastructure, and architecture decisions from day one.

You’ll be expected to move quickly, prototype rapidly, and help shape both the technical roadmap and broader company direction.

Responsibilities

Design and build scalable backend systems and APIs

Develop infrastructure for ingesting, transforming, and analysing structured and unstructured financial data

Work closely with customers to translate real-world workflows into product features

Contribute to architecture, engineering standards, and hiring as the team scales

Help build a high-performance engineering culture within a fast-moving startup environment

Tech Stack

Python

Java

Go

AWS

Redis

Temporal

Candidate Profile

2+ years of software engineering experience

Strong backend engineering experience using Python, Java, or Go

Experience building scalable APIs and distributed systems

Strong data modelling and database design capability

Comfortable operating in ambiguity and startup environments

Product-minded engineer who enjoys customer interaction and rapid iteration

Strong communication skills and ownership mentality

Nice to Have

Experience within fintech, investment platforms, or financial data products

Exposure to alternative investments or hedge fund workflows

Experience building AI-enabled or agentic systems

Previous early-stage startup or 01 experience

Package

$175k-$225k base salary

Meaningful equity package

On-site in NYC

Founding engineer opportunity (employee #4)

Why Join?

Build in a massive $24T market undergoing major digital transformation

Work directly with experienced founders from Goldman Sachs and leading hedge funds

Influence product, engineering culture, and company direction from day one

Solve real operational problems for some of the largest investment firms in the world

Join an ambitious, high-calibre team at an extremely early stage

Launchpad Recruitment Ltd acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment and an employment business for temporary recruitment. By applying for this role, you consent to your personal data being processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy (launchpadrecruitment.com/privacy-policy). We are committed to equal opportunities for all applicants.