Full-Stack Engineer (Next.js / TypeScript) - AI SaaS for the Publishing & Content Industry

About us We are a startup that builds AI tools for people who develop narrative content. We work with publishers, production studios, and streaming platforms to support the understanding, evaluation, and development of books, films, TV series, and other narrative works, combining narrative understanding, market data, and audience intelligence to change how the content industry makes decisions, from manuscript/screenplay evaluation to identifying market potential and supporting editorial and creative decisions. We already have our first paying clients, are in touch with major players in the Italian publishing industry, and are funded by a venture capital fund. We're now building out the engineering team, which works directly with our CTO. The role We're looking for an experienced full-stack freelancer to work closely with our CTO and founders on an ongoing basis. This is not a single, fixed-scope project, we're building out a broad technical roadmap and want someone versatile who can move across different areas of it as priorities evolve, rather than being locked into one narrow task. Depending on what's most urgent, you might work on: - Building out our self-service SaaS layer (organizations, plans, Stripe billing/subscriptions) - Improving reliability of our AI processing pipeline (retry/resume logic, step-level tracking on Azure Durable Functions) - Strengthening security & compliance (input hardening, CSP, access-control audits) ahead of enterprise clients - Backend/infra work (PostgreSQL/Prisma optimization, blob storage migration, monitoring, CI/CD) - Frontend feature development and UI polish (Next.js, Tailwind, shadcn/ui) We'll scope the first concrete tasks together once we start; the ideal candidate is someone we can rely on across several of these areas, potentially over an extended period. Our current stack - Frontend: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui - API/Backend: tRPC - Database: PostgreSQL, Prisma ORM - AI orchestration: Azure Durable Functions (serverless workflows for AI/async processing); AI pipeline currently hosted on AWS - Auth: Clerk - Payments: Stripe (in progress) - Hosting: Vercel (web app) What we're looking for - 3+ years of professional full-stack development experience (production, not just personal projects) - Strong hands-on experience with TypeScript, React/Next.js, and modern backend API design (tRPC or similar) - Comfortable working with PostgreSQL and an ORM (Prisma preferred) - Able to work autonomously in an early-stage, fast-moving environment with limited process: you'll often need to propose solutions, not just execute a spec - Based in Europe, with good overlap with CET working hours - Professional-level English; Italian is a plus but not required - Clear, proactive communicator, comfortable flagging trade-offs and asking questions rather than guessing Nice to have - Experience with serverless/orchestration frameworks (Azure Durable Functions, AWS Step Functions, or similar) - Experience integrating LLM/AI APIs into production products - Experience with Stripe billing/subscriptions - Familiarity with security hardening / OWASP practices - Experience in early-stage startups Engagement - Type: Freelance, ongoing part-time (not a one-off task), with potential to become a longer-term collaboration for the right person - Seniority: Mid-level+ (a few years of solid, demonstrable experience) - Location: Europe (remote) - Hours/budget: to be discussed based on fit. Please include your hourly rate and general availability in your application How to contact us Please include: 1. A short note on which of the areas above you're strongest in 2. Link to your GitHub (or similar) and/or 1-2 projects that best represent how you build software 3. Your hourly rate and weekly availability