Founding Senior Engineer (Backend / Full-Stack)

High-Level Role Overview Settify.ai is hiring a full-time senior backend / full-stack engineer to help turn our current AI sales agent into a scalable, productised platform. This is a full-time role for someone who can execute quickly, prioritise effectively, and take deep ownership of the technical side of the business. Long-term, we’re looking for someone who can grow into a CTO-level role, with potential equity upside if they prove themselves. You need to have strong backend fundamentals, ideally with experience in AI chatbots, messaging automation, multi-tenant SaaS, queues, databases, webhooks, rate limits, and production reliability. Starting salary is $5,000/month, with room to grow to $8,000–$10,000/month in the near term based on performance and ownership. This is not for agencies or part-time contractors. We’re looking for someone who’s fully committed and focused solely on our growth together. Someone who can take a janky MVP with insane and proven potential, and help us build it into a 9-figure company over the next 2–3 years. About Settify.ai Settify.ai is an AI-powered sales agent for online coaches and consultants. Our platform handles inbound lead conversations, qualification, objection handling, follow-up, and call booking by engaging with leads on Instagram. The system receives inbound messages through ManyChat, processes conversations using OpenAI, and updates CRM/dashboard workflows for operators. We launched just 3 months ago and have already generated significant results for clients: * Took our first client from $0/mo to $40k/mo in 8 weeks * Took our second client from $40k/mo to $150k/mo in 30 days after launching We’ve also partnered with the founder of AppointmentSetter.com, who is funding expansion and taking over the marketing department. As a result, demand is huge. We currently have $200k–$300k/mo worth of clients waiting to onboard. Our biggest bottleneck today is operations. Onboarding needs to become faster, safer, and more repeatable, and the codebase needs to support onboarding 30–50 clients over the coming months without sacrificing reliability, compliance, or performance. What You’ll Be Responsible For This is a full-time role where you will: * Own and improve the backend-heavy technical foundation of the platform * Productise the multi-tenant codebase so new clients can be onboarded faster and more safely * Build scalable onboarding systems, internal tools, configuration flows, and repeatable technical processes * Strengthen database logic, queueing, data parsing, rate limits, and webhook/API workflows * Audit and improve Meta compliance end-to-end * Eliminate risk of duplicate messages, spam, unsafe sends, or non-compliant automation * Improve testing, monitoring, and reliability across the full message lifecycle * Support integrations with client systems through our API/dashboard where needed * Help evolve the codebase from an early production system into a modular, scalable platform Necessary Proficiencies We’re looking for someone with: * Strong backend engineering ability * Strong JavaScript / Node.js experience * Strong Postgres/database design and querying ability * Experience with Redis, queues, locks, rate limits, workers, or message scheduling * Experience with webhooks and third-party API integrations * Experience building production systems in startup environments * Ability to iterate quickly while ensuring deployment safety * Strong debugging, testing, and systems-thinking ability * Ability to work across a live codebase and improve it without breaking production * Experience building idempotent, retry-safe backend systems * Experience with production observability, logging, monitoring, and incident debugging * Experience designing safe Postgres schemas, indexes, constraints, and migrations * Strong understanding of API security, tenant isolation, and customer data handling * Ability to improve a large early-stage monolith incrementally without breaking production * Experience with structured LLM outputs, prompt/version management, and AI reliability is strongly preferred Full-stack ability is preferred, especially for dashboards/internal tools, but backend strength is the core requirement. High-Value Experience Experience in any of the following would be highly valuable: * Building AI chatbot / LLM-powered infrastructure * Building idempotent systems, durable job processing, retry-safe workflows, and fail-closed safety mechanisms * Working with compliance-sensitive messaging systems where duplicate sends, unsafe retries, and rate limits create real business risk * Building internal tools for operations teams * Building customer onboarding automation or multi-client configuration systems * CI/CD, deployment safety, smoke testing, and rollback procedures * Systems handling inbound/outbound messaging, queueing, retries, rate limits, message delays, and database-backed conversation state * Taking ownership of a large early-stage monolith and gradually modularising it without stopping product velocity * Multi-tenant SaaS * Early-stage startups * Meta, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, or similar messaging platforms Current Tech Stack Our current stack includes: * Node.js * JavaScript / CommonJS * Postgres * Redis * SQLite for local/dev fallback * OpenAI Responses API * ManyChat * Hookdeck * Slack * Railway deployment * Static HTML/CSS/vanilla JS dashboard * Markdown-based prompt system What Success Looks Like Short-Term Home Run The codebase becomes properly multi-tenant, onboarding becomes streamlined, and the platform can reliably support rapid client onboarding without creating operational chaos. Long-Term Home Run The codebase becomes modular, scalable, well-tested, Meta-compliant, and easy to extend, with the engineer taking full ownership as a CTO-level technical leader. Who This Is Not For * This is not a narrow frontend role. You need to have deep backend knowledge. * This is not for someone who needs a clean, perfect codebase before they can contribute. * This is not for agencies or people looking for part-time work. This is a single, fully-focused commitment to the company. * This is not for someone who is looking to clock in minimum hours for a paycheck. * This is not for someone who wants to stay in a narrow execution-only role. Who This Is For * Someone who wants to grow long-term and build industry-changing technology. * Someone who can step into a fast-moving startup, understand the system quickly, make smart technical decisions, and execute. * Someone who wants real ownership, not just tasks. * Someone who wants to help build the technical foundation of a company with significant growth potential. For the right person who consistently demonstrates ownership, leadership, and the ability to take full responsibility for the technical side of the company, there is a potential path toward a CTO role and equity participation in the future.