Fractional Senior Full-Stack Engineer + Technical Coach (Long-Term, 10-15 hr/wk)

Fractional Senior Engineer — Coach + Individual Contributor ENGAGEMENT - Fractional, ongoing (not project-based) - 10–15 hours/week - $80–120/hr based on experience - US or LATAM time zones, US Eastern overlap required - Start immediately THE ROLE A founder-led operation runs a small portfolio of consumer and B2B platforms (commerce, membership, AI-driven services). Engineering today is delivered through contracted dev shops. The founder is taking direct ownership of architecture and reliability and is hiring ONE senior engineer to come in as both: 1. A COACH — raise the founder's ability to architect, review, and ship at the pull-request level 2. AN INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR — build alongside the founder on internal tools and stand up the platform-level reliability standards the existing dev shops have not This is one hire, not two. You will move between coaching and shipping in the same week. WHAT YOU'LL OWN Codebase architecture (coaching + IC): - Pair with the founder on a new internal audit-log tool as the first build - Review pull requests from existing dev shops against an architectural standard you help define - Author a Founder Execution Layer reference: phase gates, acceptance criteria, proof-of-completion standards - Catch architecture drift early (Phase 0 violations, hallucinated patterns, scope creep) - Teach AI-assisted development workflows (Claude Code, Cursor, Bolt) applied to real production repos Platform reliability (IC, with coaching transfer): - Stand up Sentry across 6 live production platforms - Draft skeleton runbooks per platform (failure modes, first-response steps, escalation path) - Establish a Dev Operating Standard v1 — branching, PR requirements, deployment checks, incident triage - Coach the founder through the rollout so they can hold dev shops to the standard STACK - Frontend: React, TypeScript, Next.js - Backend: Node.js and/or Python - Data: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis - Observability: Sentry, structured logging - AI tooling in production dev workflows (Claude Code, Cursor, or equivalent) YOU'RE LIKELY A FIT IF - 7+ years building production systems, at least 3 as senior/staff - You've mentored or coached engineers, not just shipped solo - You can read someone else's codebase fast and tell the founder what's good, risky, or wrong - You have shipped real features using AI dev tooling in production, not just experimented - You've stood up Sentry, runbooks, or on-call processes before - You write clearly. Async-first. Loom over meetings. NOT A FIT IF - You only want to write code and don't want to teach - You only want to teach and won't touch the codebase - You need a full-time role - You need daily synchronous meetings to function - Your AI tool experience is demos, not production HOW WE'LL ASSESS - Architecture judgment (30%): can you read a repo and identify drift in under 30 minutes? - Coaching ability (25%): can you explain a technical decision so a non-engineer founder can defend it in the next PR review without you? - Reliability engineering (20%): have you actually stood up Sentry + runbooks before? - AI-assisted dev fluency (15%): do you use Claude Code or Cursor every day in real repos? - Communication (10%): async clarity, Looms, written PR reviews TRIAL First 30 days paid at engagement rate. Two parallel deliverables: 1. Build the audit-log tool with the founder 2. Stand up Sentry on one production platform + draft its runbook If both ship at standard, the engagement continues. If not, we part cleanly. HOW TO APPLY Read the screening questions carefully. Applications that don't follow the instructions will be filtered out automatically. The first screening question requires you to state your favorite color. This is a deliberate filter for bots and applicants who don't read instructions. You will also be asked for a Loom video link (5–8 minutes) covering: 1. Your favorite color (first thing you say on the Loom) 2. A 60–90 second walkthrough of a repo you've worked on, pointing out one architectural decision you'd make differently today 3. A live demo of you using Claude Code or Cursor on a real codebase (2–3 minutes) 4. How you'd onboard to a 6-platform portfolio with no Sentry and no runbooks 5. One question you'd ask the founder before accepting No written cover letter required. The Loom is the application. WHAT YOU GET - Direct work with a founder who has clear standards - Real production codebases across multiple live platforms, not greenfield toys - Latitude to define the engineering standard from scratch - Ongoing engagement with predictable hours - Fast decision-making, no committee