Senior Full-Stack Engineer

Helpr is a technology platform that connects families with trusted childcare providers. We handle booking, payments, background checks, and scheduling so families can find reliable care quickly. Our platform serves thousands of families and sitters across the US.

We’re at an inflection point: growing revenue, expanding partnerships, and ready to invest in engineering quality. You’d be our first in-house engineer — joining a team who is deeply hands-on and building the foundation for what becomes the in-house engineering team.

This is not a maintenance role. You’ll own the entire backend: shipping features, migrating the stack, integrating with payment and identity providers, and making architectural decisions that will define the platform for years. You’ll work directly with leadership; no layers, no committees, no tickets that disappear into a sprint backlog.

What You'll Do

• Own all backend and API development — new features, bug fixes, integrations, and infrastructure
• Lead the incremental migration from Laravel (PHP) to Node.js/TypeScript/React, starting with new features and high-churn areas
• Build and maintain integrations with Stripe (payments, ACH, Checkout Sessions), identity verification providers, and partner APIs
• Design and implement the backend architecture for new product features alongside the product team
• Improve developer experience: CI/CD, testing, monitoring, and deployment workflows
• Collaborate with the offshore mobile team (iOS/Android) on API contracts and shared data models
• Participate in on-call rotation for production issues

First 90 Days

• Month 1: Onboard on the Laravel codebase, understand the data model, partner integrations, and payment flows. Ship a meaningful bug fix or small feature to build context.
• Month 2: Take ownership of an active project (e.g., Stripe ACH migration). Deliver end-to-end with the VPoE reviewing architecture, not micromanaging implementation.
• Month 3: Propose and begin executing the migration strategy for moving the first service or feature area from Laravel to Node/TypeScript.

Must Have

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong Node.js and TypeScript/React skills — this is the target stack
• Working experience with PHP/Laravel — you’ll need to read, debug, and modify the existing codebase before migrating it
• Experience with relational databases (MySQL) — schema design, migrations, query optimization
• Solid understanding of RESTful API design and third-party API integrations
• Experience with Stripe or similar payment platform integrations (payment intents, webhooks, subscription billing)
• Comfortable owning production systems — deployments to kubernetes in GCP
• Kubernetes and container orchestration experience
• Strong communicator who can articulate technical decisions and trade-offs clearly
• Comfortable with using LLMs to help deliver accurate and maintainable code

Nice to Have

• Google Cloud infrastructure experience
• Experience in a marketplace, booking, or payments-heavy product
• Experience migrating legacy codebases to modern stacks incrementally (strangler fig pattern)
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing strategies, and deployment automation

What We're Not Looking For

• Someone who needs detailed specs for every task — you’ll help define the specs
• A framework zealot — we care about shipping working software, not stack purity
• Someone who only wants to work on greenfield — you’ll spend real time in legacy PHP before earning the migration work

Tech Stack

• First engineer: You’re not joining a team, you’re building one. Your decisions shape the technical foundation.
• Direct leadership access: No sprint ceremonies for the sake of process. You and the product team decide what to build and how.
• Migration ownership: You get to lead a real stack migration from PHP to TypeScript — not just talk about it in a design doc.
• Impact at scale: Helpr serves thousands of families. The code you write directly affects real people finding childcare.
• Equity upside: Early engineering hire at a growing company with established revenue.

• Intro call with VPoE (30 min) — mutual fit, role expectations, your questions
• Technical screen (60 min) — live coding or architecture discussion, your choice. We’ll work through a real problem.
• Take-home or pairing session (2–3 hours) — small project relevant to our stack.
• Final conversation — team fit, comp discussion, questions

We respect your time. The entire process takes 1–2 weeks, not months.

Email interest to apply@hellohelpr.com or apply on Indeed.