Founding Engineer
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About the Role
About Wathba Wathba is an early-stage Saudi startup building a platform for AI-enabled builders and independent product creators. We're now preparing to build our MVP and are looking for a senior, hands-on engineer to turn our approved architecture into a working, maintainable, production-ready platform.
Key Skills for This Role
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About Wathba
Wathba is an early-stage Saudi startup building a platform for AI-enabled builders and independent product creators.
We're now preparing to build our MVP and are looking for a senior, hands-on engineer to turn our approved architecture into a working, maintainable, production-ready platform.
About the Role
We're looking for a senior Full-Stack Platform Engineer to lead the technical implementation of Wathba's MVP and beyond.
This is a high-ownership role for an engineer who can work independently across backend development, frontend/dashboard implementation, cloud deployment, third-party integrations, security, and operational readiness.
You'll be the main engineer responsible for building the first version of the platform - implementing the architecture, making practical technical decisions, and establishing a strong foundation that future engineers can build on.
This role is ideal for someone who has previously built production systems end-to-end and is comfortable working in an early-stage environment with high ambiguity, fast decisions, and direct ownership.
Role Mission
Build the MVP of Wathba's platform based on the approved architecture and product direction.
You'll implement the core system, integrate with external providers, deploy on GCP, and ensure the product is secure, reliable, observable, and maintainable from day one.
Backend & Platform Development
- Build the core backend system for the MVP
- Implement secure, maintainable APIs
- Design and implement the application data model
- Build authentication, authorization, and access-control flows
- Implement API key management and secure request handling
- Build the foundation for usage tracking, service access, and operational visibility
- Implement rate limiting, audit logging, error handling, and platform safeguards
- Structure the backend to support future expansion
Integrations
- Build and maintain integrations with multiple external service providers
- Handle provider-specific auth, request formats, webhooks, callbacks, errors, and edge cases
- Abstract provider complexity behind clean internal interfaces
- Design integration patterns so new providers can be added with minimal effort
- Own the ongoing health of integrations — monitoring, failure handling, and updates as providers change
- Document integration behavior, limitations, operational notes, and failure scenarios
Dashboard & Internal Tools
- Build the web dashboard required for the MVP
- Implement practical user-facing and internal administrative interfaces
- Keep the dashboard clear, usable, and focused on core MVP workflows
- Build internal tools that help the team operate, monitor, and support the platform
Cloud Deployment & DevOps
- Deploy the platform on Google Cloud Platform
- Set up development, staging, and production environments
- Configure CI/CD pipelines
- Manage secrets and environment configuration securely
- Set up logging, monitoring, alerts, and error visibility
- Implement backup, recovery, and basic operational safeguards
- Ensure the platform can be operated reliably by a small team
Security & Reliability
- Apply secure engineering practices across the platform
- Protect sensitive credentials and member data
- Implement proper access control and auditability
- Design for traceability across important system actions
- Handle external provider failures gracefully
- Build with maintainability, observability, and operational clarity in mind
Documentation & Collaboration
- Work from the architecture and design provided by Tech Consultants
- Translate technical architecture into implementation tasks
- Document technical decisions and implementation details
- Maintain clear API and operational documentation
- Communicate progress, risks, blockers, and trade-offs clearly
- Collaborate with the team on scope, priorities, and technical decisions
- Prepare the system for future handover and team expansion
Required Qualifications
- Strong experience building production backend systems
- Strong experience with API design, backend architecture, and platform-oriented system design
- Experience with TypeScript/Node.js, Python, Go, Java, or a similar backend stack
- Experience with relational databases, preferably PostgreSQL
- Experience integrating with third-party APIs in production environments
- Experience building secure authentication and authorization flows
- Experience with API keys, access control, rate limiting, logging, and audit trails
- Ability to build practical frontend/admin interfaces using React, Next.js, or similar
- Experience deploying and operating applications on cloud infrastructure
- Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines
- Strong understanding of secure secrets management and environment configuration
- Expertise in spec-driven development - translating requirements and architecture into clear specs, implementation plans, and testable deliverables
- Strong practical understanding of using AI tools effectively in software development while maintaining code quality, security, review discipline, and architectural control
- Ability to work independently as the primary engineer on an MVP
- Strong problem-solving skills and comfort with ambiguity
- Clear written communication and documentation skills
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with GCP - especially Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, Secret Manager, Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring, Pub/Sub, or Cloud Tasks
- Experience building developer platforms, API platforms, SaaS platforms, internal tools, or integration middleware
- Experience with wallet systems, metering, billing, usage tracking, or transaction ledgers
- Experience with payment, identity, logistics, telecom, or government-related integrations
- Experience with multi-tenant system design
- Experience with OpenAPI/Swagger and developer-facing API documentation
- Experience with background jobs, queues, retries, and idempotent operations
- Previous experience as a founding engineer, early-stage startup engineer, or senior engineer in a small product team
Expected Ownership
End-to-end ownership of the MVP implementation, including: backend development, database design and migrations, external service integrations, dashboard implementation, cloud deployment, CI/CD setup, logging and monitoring, security basics, API documentation, and technical/operational handover documentation.
What Success Looks Like
- Turn architecture and product direction into a working MVP and continue scaling it
- Build a secure, maintainable platform foundation
- Integrate with external providers despite imperfect documentation or changing requirements
- Deploy and operate the system on GCP
- Make practical technical decisions without over-engineering
- Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Leave behind a codebase and documentation future engineers can understand and extend
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