Staff Product Engineer
Shape AI-native developer tools from the ground up — own product direction, build across the stack, and make a lasting impact alongside a talented founding team in NYC.
Location: Flatiron, NYC
Work Setup: Onsite, 5 days per week
Employment Type: Full-time
About the Company
We’re working with an early-stage technology company building the next generation of AI-native developer tooling.
The team is creating products that help engineers work more effectively with modern AI systems, including developer workflows and agent-based environments. This is an opportunity to join early, work closely with a small and highly capable engineering team, and help shape products from the ground up.
About the Role
We’re looking for a Staff Product Engineer who enjoys operating across product, engineering, and architecture.
This is a hands-on individual contributor role for someone who can take an ambiguous problem, turn it into a practical product, and own the technical decisions required to bring it to production.
You will work across the stack, collaborate closely with the founding team, and have meaningful influence over both what gets built and how it gets built.
This role is ideal for an engineer who is comfortable moving quickly, making decisions with incomplete information, and taking ownership beyond a narrowly defined technical area.
What You’ll Do
Own the technical direction and implementation of new products and major product initiatives.
Take ideas from early concept and architecture through development, launch, and iteration.
Build hands-on across the stack, with a strong focus on TypeScript, React, and modern web applications.
Make thoughtful architectural decisions while balancing speed, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
Work closely with product and company leadership to translate ambiguous problems into useful customer-facing solutions.
Help define engineering standards, development workflows, and technical best practices.
Use modern AI-assisted development tools to improve engineering velocity and product quality.
Review designs and code, provide technical guidance, and raise the engineering quality of the team.
Influence technical direction through strong judgment, communication, and execution rather than formal people management.
Contribute to a culture of ownership, experimentation, and continuous improvement.
What We’re Looking For
7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with strong evidence of senior-level technical ownership.
Experience building and launching products, features, or platforms from an early stage.
Strong full-stack engineering skills, particularly with:
TypeScript
React
Node.js or another modern backend technology
APIs, databases, and cloud-based applications
Experience working in a startup, scale-up, or similarly fast-moving engineering environment.
Ability to operate independently in ambiguous situations and turn broad goals into shipped products.
Strong architectural judgment and the ability to explain technical trade-offs clearly.
Experience influencing engineering decisions and mentoring other engineers without needing direct management responsibility.
Genuine interest in AI-native software development and modern developer workflows.
Strong communication skills and a product-oriented mindset.
Willingness to work onsite in Flatiron, NYC, five days per week.
Helpful, But Not Required
Experience building developer tools, infrastructure products, internal platforms, or engineering productivity software.
Experience with AI coding agents, LLM-powered products, or agent-based development environments.
Experience at an early-stage startup or as a founding/early engineering hire.
Experience taking a product from a blank page to its first production release.
Familiarity with cloud infrastructure, developer experience, CI/CD, or distributed systems.
What Makes This Opportunity Interesting
Meaningful ownership over product and technical direction.
Opportunity to build new AI-native developer products from the ground up.
Staff-level impact without moving into people management.
Direct collaboration with a small, highly capable team.
Ability to influence architecture, product decisions, and engineering culture from an early stage.
A role where your work will have visible impact rather than disappearing into a very large organizational machine.
- Locations
- United States
- Employment type
- Full-time
- Job location
- New York
Workplace & Culture at Sperton
At Sperton, we believe that great results come from great people.
Our culture is built on trust, collaboration, and a shared passion for delivering quality in everything we do.
We are a Norwegian-owned international company with colleagues across Europe, Asia, and the USA, working together seamlessly across time zones and cultures. Our teams are diverse, yet united by the same goal — to connect people and companies in meaningful ways.
We value openness, initiative, and continuous learning. Everyone at Sperton is encouraged to take ownership, share ideas, and challenge existing ways of working to make our solutions even better.
Even though we operate globally, our approach is personal. We take pride in creating a supportive and inclusive environment where people feel heard, respected, and motivated to grow — both professionally and personally.
