Remote full stack engineer

We are building a next-generation creator platform in the music and entertainment space, The platform targets iOS, Android, and web simultaneously with a fully unified experience across all three, designed from the ground up to empower independent artists and creators to collaborate, monetize, and build verifiable reputation without relying on traditional industry infrastructure. The scope of work is full stack and production-grade. The platform includes a real-time social feed and 5 other major screens along with a smart recommendation engine and infrastructural layers of reliable reputation building and fan monetization . This is not a simple CRUD application. Every feature is either already designed and prototyped or actively in development. We are looking for an engineer who can take a well-defined system and build it to a production standard that competes with the best consumer apps in the market. The full scope, architecture documentation, design system, and prototype will be shared after legal agreements are executed. Looking to hire a full stack engineer to develop and progress a mvp of my "social media app" from start to finish, mile stoned into 4 phases, looking around 150-300 hours of work Interview stages - Application review async tech screener Phone interview Background check/Reference check Executive review legal agreements Offer/Contract/Onboarding Guarantees and Protections Required to be hired; 1. Present-Tense IP Assignment All intellectual property is assigned to the Owner at the moment of creation using present-tense language — "Developer hereby assigns" — not "agrees to assign." This distinction is legally dispositive per the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Stanford v. Roche and ensures there is no gap in ownership at any point during or after the engagement. 2. Work-Made-For-Hire + Backup Assignment All copyrightable deliverables are designated as Work Made for Hire under 17 U.S.C. § 101. A full backup assignment is included for any deliverables that fall outside the narrow statutory categories of copyright work-made-for-hire, ensuring complete ownership coverage with no gaps. 3. Source Code in Owner's GitHub from Day One All code must be committed directly to the Owner's GitHub organization repository from the first day of work — not delivered at the end of the project and not stored in the developer's personal repository at any point. This is a hard requirement and the Owner's primary leverage for protecting work in progress. 4. Milestone-Based Payment Structure Payment will be structured across milestones as follows: 25% at kickoff, 25% at mid-milestone delivery, 25% at final delivery, and 25% after a 30-day acceptance period. No more than 25–33% will ever be released upfront. Final payment is contingent on passing all acceptance criteria. 5. Written Acceptance Criteria Per Milestone Each milestone will have objective, written pass/fail acceptance criteria defined in the Statement of Work before work begins. Payment for each milestone is only released upon the Owner's confirmation that all criteria are met. 6. 30–90 Day Bug-Fix Warranty The developer must provide a warranty period of 30 to 90 days following final delivery at no additional charge, covering defects, bugs, or failures within the agreed scope of delivered work. 7. Weekly Git Push Requirement All active work must be pushed to the Owner's GitHub repository on a weekly basis at minimum. No exceptions. This serves as both a progress checkpoint and a source code escrow mechanism ensuring the Owner always has full access to the current state of the work. 8. Certificate of Insurance The developer or agency must provide a Certificate of Insurance (COI) demonstrating active Technology Errors & Omissions (Tech E&O) coverage of at minimum $1,000,000 per occurrence, plus General Liability coverage, with the Owner named as an additional insured. Note: verified industry data shows Tech E&O coverage averages approximately $67 per month for qualified technology firms — this is a standard and reasonable requirement for any serious professional developer or agency. 9. Termination for Convenience The Owner reserves the right to terminate the engagement at any milestone for any reason with written notice. Upon termination, the developer is compensated only for work completed and accepted up to that point. All IP, code, and access transfer to the Owner immediately upon notice of termination. 10. Non-Compete and Non-Solicitation — 24 Months The developer agrees not to replicate, build upon, contribute to, or advise on any competing product that incorporates STĀGE's specific proprietary feature designs, including but not limited to: the HQ/Creator Health Scoring system, Fan Club subscription tiers, the Collab workflow and proposal-to-reputation pipeline, and the serendipity discovery engine. This restriction applies for 24 months following the end of the engagement and is narrowly scoped to these specific systems — not general software development work. 11. Confidentiality — Indefinite All proprietary information disclosed during the engagement is permanently confidential with no expiration. This includes, without limitation, the STĀGE v11 HTML prototype, all system specifications, architecture documentation, business logic, monetization design, and any other materials shared during the engagement. Violation of confidentiality authorizes the Owner to seek immediate injunctive relief and full damages. 12. Mutual Indemnification for Third-Party IP Claims Both parties agree to mutual indemnification covering any third-party intellectual property infringement claims arising from code or materials delivered during the engagement. The developer warrants that all delivered code is original, does not infringe third-party rights, and does not incorporate unlicensed open-source code that would restrict the Owner's unrestricted use and ownership. 13. Governing Law and Venue All agreements are governed exclusively by the laws of the State of North Carolina, United States. All disputes shall be resolved in Wake County Superior Court. The developer consents to personal jurisdiction in this venue and waives any objection to it. How Signing Works All three required documents — Non-Disclosure Agreement, the Intellectual Property Assignment Agreement, and the Independent Contractor Agreement — will be sent via DocuSign prior to any project access being granted. Candidates who are serious, professional, and confident in the quality of their work will have no hesitation signing these agreements. These protections exist to ensure a clean, professional, and legally secure engagement for both parties.