Software Engineer

# Senior iOS + Python Full-Stack Engineer / Potential Technical Co-Founder — Consumer Nutrition Startup **Project Type:** Long-term collaboration with potential technical co-founder opportunity **Experience Level:** Expert **About the Project** I'm building Merid, a consumer nutrition and wellness application focused on helping people better understand their dietary patterns, micronutrient intake, and overall nutritional habits. Unlike traditional calorie and macro trackers, the goal is to provide meaningful, personalized nutrition insights that help users better understand what they're eating and make informed decisions over time. The application is already substantially developed, with an existing native iOS app, Python backend, AI-powered food analysis pipeline, and nutrition database integrations. The iOS application and backend each contain approximately 50,000 lines of code. I'm looking for an experienced engineer who can help me take this existing product to the next level, refine the product experience, improve the technical implementation, and ultimately prepare it for a reliable production launch. **I'm not looking for someone who simply completes assigned coding tasks. I'm looking for a collaborative technical partner who can help plan, improve, build, and eventually take ownership of the product's technical direction.** Ideally, we'd begin with a paid freelance engagement and potentially develop into a long-term founding engineer or technical co-founder relationship if we're a strong fit. ## Our Current Technology Stack **Native iOS Application** - Swift and SwiftUI, targeting iOS 17.6+ - Swift Charts for nutritional trends and data visualization - StoreKit 2 for subscriptions - Sign in with Apple and Google Sign-In - HealthKit integration (write-only, for saving nutrition data) - Sentry for crash and error reporting **Backend and Infrastructure** - Python 3.11 - FastAPI and Pydantic - REST APIs consumed by the native iOS application - App Store Server Notifications for subscription events - Render hosting with GitHub-based deployment - GitHub Actions for continuous integration - Sentry for backend monitoring **Database and Authentication** - Supabase (PostgreSQL and Auth) - pgvector and pg_trgm for hybrid semantic and fuzzy food search - Versioned SQL migrations (140+ currently) **AI and Nutrition Data Pipeline** - Anthropic Claude (Sonnet and Haiku) for meal interpretation, food matching, and personalized nutrition text - Direct API integrations with prompt caching and per-user AI cost limits - Voyage AI embeddings for food search - USDA FoodData Central, including Foundation, SR Legacy, and FNDDS - Canadian, UK, and French national food composition databases - An accuracy test suite containing 400+ reference foods to evaluate changes before deployment Experience with every technology is not mandatory, but strong proficiency in native iOS development, Python backend engineering, databases, and production systems is essential. ## Product Planning and Collaboration **This is one of the most important aspects of the opportunity.** Although the application is already substantially developed, I want someone who can help evaluate and refine the product rather than simply continue implementing existing features. I have a clear overall vision, but I want a technical partner who can contribute to deciding what the best version of the product should be. Responsibilities include: - Reviewing the existing application and identifying opportunities to improve functionality, usability, and architecture. - Brainstorming and refining features together. - Helping determine which functionality is essential for launch and which can be introduced later. - Evaluating user flows, onboarding, navigation, and overall product experience. - Identifying technical limitations, unnecessary complexity, and opportunities for simplification. - Challenging product assumptions and suggesting better solutions when appropriate. - Helping prioritize development based on user value, technical feasibility, and business impact. - Creating a realistic roadmap for production readiness and future releases. - Collaborating on long-term product direction and technical strategy. I want someone who brings their own ideas, asks thoughtful questions, and is comfortable discussing tradeoffs. **The goal is to work together on both what we should build and how we should build it.** ## Engineering and Production Responsibilities I'm looking for someone capable of taking substantial technical ownership of the existing application. This includes: **1. Existing Codebase Review** - Understand the current Swift/SwiftUI and Python codebases. - Evaluate architecture, maintainability, performance, and technical debt. - Identify critical issues and prioritize improvements. - Recommend targeted refactoring where appropriate rather than unnecessary rewrites. **2. iOS Development** - Improve and maintain the native SwiftUI application. - Implement new features and refine existing functionality. - Optimize responsiveness, stability, and user experience. - Maintain integrations with StoreKit, authentication providers, HealthKit, and backend APIs. **3. Backend and AI Systems** - Maintain and improve FastAPI services and API integrations. - Work with Supabase, PostgreSQL, and database migrations. - Improve the reliability, accuracy, and efficiency of the food analysis pipeline. - Evaluate AI costs, latency, and output quality. - Maintain and expand automated testing where needed. **4. Production Readiness** - Assess security, authentication, authorization, and data handling. - Improve automated testing, deployment workflows, and monitoring. - Validate subscription handling and purchase lifecycle events. - Identify and resolve performance and reliability issues. - Establish appropriate backup, recovery, and operational procedures. - Prepare the application for real users and production traffic. - Help navigate App Store requirements, submission, and release. **5. Post-Launch Ownership** - Monitor application health and resolve production issues. - Improve reliability and performance based on real-world usage. - Help prioritize technical improvements and new features. - Support future releases and long-term scalability. ## Ideal Candidate You should have: - Significant professional experience developing native iOS applications with Swift and SwiftUI. - Strong Python backend development experience, ideally with FastAPI. - Experience working with PostgreSQL and modern cloud infrastructure. - A proven history of shipping and maintaining production mobile applications. - Experience taking over and improving existing codebases. - Strong knowledge of APIs, authentication, security, and testing. - Familiarity with AI/LLM integrations and data-processing pipelines. - Excellent communication skills and independent problem-solving ability. - The ability to make sound engineering decisions without constant direction. - Genuine interest in consumer applications, product development, and startups. Experience with nutrition, wellness, health-related applications, subscriptions, or AI-powered consumer products is a plus. ## Initial Engagement I'd like to begin with a paid technical and product assessment. During this initial engagement, we'll work together to: 1. Review the existing application, backend, and infrastructure. 2. Understand the current functionality and development status. 3. Identify the most important product and technical improvements. 4. Evaluate production readiness and potential launch blockers. 5. Prioritize remaining development work. 6. Create a practical roadmap toward launch. If the initial engagement goes well, the goal is to continue working together on implementation, testing, deployment, and ongoing development. ## Long-Term Opportunity / Potential Technical Co-Founder I'm serious about building Merid into a long-term consumer product. I'm particularly interested in finding someone who wants to be involved beyond a traditional freelance engagement. Initially, this will be a paid contract with defined responsibilities and milestones. If we work well together, demonstrate meaningful progress, and share a long-term vision, I'd be open to discussing a founding engineer or technical co-founder arrangement, potentially including equity. Any equity or co-founder arrangement would be discussed and agreed upon separately. Ideally, I'm looking for someone who could eventually lead the technical side of the company, help shape the product, and take responsibility for its continued development and reliability. ## To Apply Please answer the following questions: 1. What native iOS applications have you personally built and shipped using Swift or SwiftUI? Please provide App Store links where possible. 2. How experienced are you with Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and production backend systems? 3. Have you taken over an existing, substantial codebase and successfully improved or launched it? Please describe your experience. 4. Have you worked with AI/LLM APIs, embeddings, semantic search, or data-processing pipelines? 5. How would you approach evaluating an existing iOS and backend application to determine whether it's production-ready? 6. Are you comfortable contributing to product planning, feature prioritization, UX discussions, and technical strategy rather than only implementing assigned tasks? 7. Have you previously worked as a founding engineer, technical lead, or startup co-founder? 8. Would you be interested in a potential long-term technical co-founder opportunity if we work well together? 9. What is your availability for an initial paid assessment and potential ongoing collaboration? ## Final Note I'm looking for someone who combines strong engineering ability with thoughtful product judgment. The ideal person is proactive, collaborative, technically experienced, and comfortable taking ownership. I want to build a relationship with someone who can help make the product better, prepare it for a successful launch, and potentially grow alongside the business. If you enjoy building consumer products, solving complex technical problems, and contributing to early-stage startup decisions, I'd love to hear from you.