Senior Software Engineer

Join to apply for the Senior Software Engineer role at Headstart AI. We are looking for innovative developers to help build frontier AI technologies.

$/yr - $/yr

At Headstart our mission is to bring companies into the age of intelligence and automate software development. We are the team behind the coding agent Friday and are building frontier applied AI technologies including agent orchestration, memory, and more.

We are a lean, high‑velocity team that ships breakthrough AI capabilities at startup speed. We work directly with our users, iterate rapidly, and measure success by the real‑world impact we create for our clients.

• Own and drive the full development lifecycle from ideation through production
• Prototype rapidly while ensuring long‑term reliability, maintainability, and security
• Build intuitive, accessible full‑stack products from frontend interfaces or internal tools that surface model workflows and automate complex processes
• Architect, build, and maintain scalable APIs and systems that integrate LLMs to power both internal tooling and customer‑facing workflows
• Collaborate across teams to identify solutions to data‑intensive problems
• Mentor and support the growth of other engineers while helping to define and drive the technical roadmap

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong interest in leveraging AI in the development lifecycle (bonus if experience)
• Enjoys a fast‑paced and collaborative environment
• Proven track record owning full‑stack systems: backend services (Python, FastAPI, Node.js), relational databases (Postgres/MySQL), and optionally frontend frameworks like React/Next.js
• Experience designing distributed systems, APIs, data pipelines, or developer productivity infrastructure at scale
• Bonus if you’ve been a founding engineer or startup early hire, with history building production products from scratch
• Bonus if you’re NYC based — we have a loft office in Soho and provide lunch and snacks

Even if you don't meet all the requirements, we still encourage you to apply.

This role offers extensive benefits, a base salary of $185,000 USD plus competitive equity compensation and 401k match.

Mid‑Senior level

Full‑time

Engineering and Information Technology

Software Development