JOB OPENING AT BRIDGE IN - FOUNDING ENGINEER PRODUCT ALCHEMIST (BASED IN PORTUGAL, SPAIN OR ITALY)

Location: Remote (Preferably from a time zone that overlaps with GMT+1)

Type: Full-time

Experience: Senior

Expertise: Software Product Engineering 

Do you think great code barely needs tests? 
Is your development philosophy "ship fast, iterate faster"?
Do you panic over spaghetti code and instinctively re-architect it into something sleek, scalable, and user-friendly?
If the answer is "absolutely," keep reading.

 

🚀 We’re a team of visionaries and operators building something from scratch, and we need a partner in crime who thrives in the beautiful mess of a startup. We are BRIDGE IN. You might have seen us on lists like "Top 10 Portuguese Startups" or "15th Fastest-Growing Company in Southern Europe." That's cool, but what it really means is that we've achieved market-fit and know we need to accelerate the product development. Our mission? To fight the soul-crushing bureaucracy of Europe (starting from the southern red tape) and build the future of work with our Company-As-A-Service platform.

💡 We're not looking for someone who just writes code; we're looking for an owner, a builder, an alchemist who can turn our MVP and never-ending list of ideas into reality... fast and without drowning us in tech debt! You’ll be the one to check the foundations, build the first floors, and help design the blueprint for our entire technical future. This isn't just a job; it's a chance to co-author

our story.

🔥 We've moved beyond the initial scramble. We've derisked a significant part of our operation, we're profitable, and we have traction. This gives us the rare luxury of long-term planning and the freedom to build for the future, not the next funding round. But make no mistake—the fire is still burning. We operate with a deep sense of urgency, driven by the belief that we have a massive opportunity ahead of us.

 

💪 What you'll be doing:

  • Pragmatic Architecting: You'll be responsible for defining our technical architecture and revisiting pipelines, with a focus on building a product so robust and well-designed that it almost doesn't need tests. You'll prioritize a flawless yet minimal design that minimizes future bugs and technical debt.

  • Forging our Product: As a key member of the product team, you'll be instrumental in building and launching our core product. This means you’ll be hands-on with everything from improving (or sunsetting) our existing code to crafting the next major product iteration and the production deployment.

  • Wielding the Full Stack: You’ll be our go-to full-stack guru. Our stack is primarily built on React for the frontend and Ruby On Rails (likely migrating to Node.js, your call) for the backend. You'll be building elegant user interfaces and robust, scalable backend services that can handle growth.

  • Cloud Whispering: You'll set up and manage our cloud infrastructure, currently on DigitalOcean. We're looking for a pragmatic builder who understands how to get a product off the ground, deploy it, and keep it running efficiently without over-engineering.

  • Minimal Effective Documentation: You'll document what is needed, all that is needed, and nothing more than is needed. Following the Agile Manifesto.

  • The Scrappy Generalist: One day you might be debating database schemas, the next you're optimizing API calls, and the one after you're fixing a pixel-perfect CSS issue. You're a doer who enjoys the entire process of bringing an idea to life, from code to production.

  • Bonus Side Quest: A history with GenAI is a huge plus. We don't buy into the hype blindly, but using AI tools to speed up prototyping, generating documentation, and building our own models, including RAG, into the product is in the cards.

 

🧠 What you're like:

  • You're an Owner, Not a Renter: You take extreme ownership of your work. You don't wait for permission; you take initiative and find solutions. You see problems as puzzles to be solved, not roadblocks to be avoided.

  • You Speak Product: You're not just a coder; you think like a product manager. You're obsessed with the user experience and can translate complex business requirements into clear, functional code.

  • You're Pragmatic: You understand that speed and impact often trump perfection. You can build MVPs and prototypes quickly and are not afraid to iterate rapidly based on feedback.

  • You're Obsessed: You will not let go until a difficult challenge is solved. You like hard problems because they are hard.

  • You're a True Collaborator: You know that the best ideas are born from collaboration. You’re a great communicator and enjoy working side-by-side with the founding team, non-technical stakeholders, and subject matter experts.

  • You Love Objective Intellectual Confrontation: You separate the arguments from the messenger and appreciate being challenged and challenge everyone, based on honest and objective intellectual confrontation. No dogmas allowed.

  • Bonus Special Power: You happen to have recently acted as a CTO co-founder and are acutely aware of the infinite number of hurdles and doubts to make it happen, creating something out of pure brain power and imagination, getting from 0 to 1.

  • Optional Tactical Weapon: You happen to have a great colleague that you worked with recently, who makes both an unstoppable duo.

 

👑 The Offer you can't refuse:

This is a high-impact, high-reward role. You'll have an immense amount of influence over our product, technology, and culture. You'll report directly to the CEO, a software engineer, and to the right person with demonstrable results; there is a path to becoming the CTO.

We offer a competitive salary, possibly not the top compensation you could get elsewhere. We are bootstrapped, not burning VC cash like fun coupons. We are remote-first and async-first, not only. We have a diverse international team, no jerks. We give people control of their schedule and working hours. We trust by default, but with great power comes great responsibility.

If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves, build something amazing, and collect the spoils of your work and brilliance, we want to talk to you.

 

😎 Ready to apply?

 Great! Our selection process is designed to be as thoughtful as the product we're building. It begins with a data-driven review of your experience and culminates in a human-to-human discussion to ensure we're a great fit for each other. We’re excited to see what we can build together.