Senior Full Stack Engineer - Founding Team

Canada / US Remote

The Opportunity.

DataBraid is a startup on a mission  to transform the insurance industry with a cutting edge infrastructure as a service product focussed on data connectivity.  Our connectivity platform will revolutionize how data is shared across the entire insurance value chain allowing industry participants to seamlessly manage, modernize and future proof  their connection infrastructure.  DataBraid has partnered with Koru’s venture studio, and has recently closed a pre-seed round of external financing.

Today, insurance data is siloed and fragmented - resulting in operational inefficiencies, less than ideal customer experiences, and lack of innovation. Our unified API will enable the entire insurance ecosystem to build better, more personalized insurance products and customer experiences. 

Join an experienced team of founders (CEO and CTO) looking to build out the founding team to join this journey.  As part of the Koru/DataBraid partnership,, this venture also benefits from the resources of Koru’s incubation team– spanning product, tech, design, operations and GTM working on building the first version of the platform.  We are armed with research, data, some early market validation, a first customer, and a robust pipeline of potential partners.  

About Koru.

Koru is a first of its kind venture studio and early-stage investor funded by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a $200B+ Canadian investor with portfolio companies around the world — giving us access to innovate across dozens of different industries on a global scale. Koru partners with OTPP portfolio companies to build businesses with a clear right to win. We build and invest in ventures from 0-1 that address customer frictions head-on — and we leverage our corporate partnerships to gain unfair advantages in the market. 

Please note: This is not an employee opportunity at Koru, but an opportunity to be a co-founder of a new company created through our venture studio model. This company will be independent of Koru.

As a Founding Engineer, you will:

• Be a member of the Founding Team with direct input and influence of the strategic vision for the company
• Be one of the first engineering hires and work closely with Koru’s talented product, design, business, and growth teams during incubation as well as DataBraid’s CTO post incubation 
• Contribute to  the development roadmap and technical architecture
• Champion agile practices that provide a foundation for iterative product development in response to key insights from customer validation and market/team feedback 
• Be scrappy! In the early days, the founding team will be small and cross functional; this means you’ll need to be able to jump between the strategic and the executional on a regular basis
• Enjoy working in a diverse, dynamic, collaborative, transparent, environment where everyone's ideas and opinions are equally valued

Key Responsibilities:

• Core Software Development: Design and implement core backend software components using primarily Python and TypeScript.
• Infrastructure Development: Collaborate closely with the CTO to build, support, and scale infrastructure from the ground up.
• Performance Optimization: Analyze and enhance the efficiency, scalability, and stability of system resources.
• Team Leadership: Set direction and goals for the team regarding project impact, product quality, and engineering efficiency.
• Project Ownership: Lead major initiatives, including projects, teams, roll-outs, and phased releases.
• Autonomous Work: Operate independently with the freedom to work autonomously in a remote-first environment.
• Communication & Collaboration: Maintain clear and effective communication within the team, ensuring successful collaboration in a remote-first setup.
• Mentorship & Onboarding:  Assist in onboarding new team members, providing mentorship, and enabling a successful ramp-up on your team's codebases.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of programming experience, particularly in Python and TypeScript.
• 7+ years of relevant experience in building large-scale infrastructure applications or similar systems.
• Have a high degree of comfort with the levels of ambiguity and the pace of building an early stage startup
• Be a polyglot! Recent hands-on development and delivery experience with a broad mix of coding languages & platforms, such as (but not exclusively):  python, node, javascript, AWS stack, etc
• Have experience working across platforms & technologies, such as web apps, SaaS, APIs, automation and/or AI and ML powered platforms
• Have experience with architecture and design and the ability to articulate reasoning and trade-offs
• Be ready to take risks and build something from the ground up.
• Proven experience in leading major initiatives and projects successfully.
• Experience in API development and building high-quality, reliable software.
• Strong track record of improving code quality through code reviews, testing, monitoring, and proactive changes.
• Experience in explaining technical problems using data and analysis, providing detailed feedback and solutions.

It would be ideal if you have:

• Experience working on Business-to-Developer products and API development, or Integration Marketplace experience, understanding what makes a great “developer experience”
• Experience in building completely new products from 0-1, and bringing them to market 
• Previous experience being an early hire in a new company
• Experience with RPA (Robotic Process Automation, a.k.a. “bots”) development
• Examples of apps you’ve designed/built that showcase both front and back end development contributions
• Experience with web scraping technologies, particularly Puppeteer.
• Familiarity with our tech stack: FastAPI, Pydantic, Docker, Kubernetes, Django, and AWS S3.

As an early team member, you’ll get:

• To work alongside an experienced and passionate Founder/CEO and CTO
• The support of Koru’s venture studio during incubation and beyond 
• Participate in the employee stock option plan
• An opportunity to be part of something big that has the potential to transform the insurance industry
• A remote-first working culture 
• Monthly short-term travel to Toronto or as required

What happens next?

Once we review your application, if we’d like to move you forward in the process, here’s what you can expect:

• Step 1:  Introductory Interview (Virtual, 30 minutes)
• Step 2:  Technical Screen (Virtual, 45 mins)
• Step 3:  System Design Interview (Virtual, 45 mins)
• Step 4:  2-3  2:1 Team Interviews (Virtual, 30-45 minutes each)
• Step 5: Candidate Debrief 
• Step 6: Offer

This venture will be headquartered in the UK and will have a fully remote/global team, but will be supporting the Canadian market as the first commercial market.

We’re flattered that you’d like to join our team, but only applicants selected to proceed in the hiring process will be contacted.