About the Role
We're building an AI-native operating system that helps nurse practitioners launch and run independent clinical practices — and we're looking for a Founding Product Engineer to own and shape the clinician-facing product experience. This is a high-impact, early-team role at a seed-stage healthtech company where you'll work directly with founders, designers, and clinicians to turn complex clinical workflows into polished, reliable software that improves care delivery.
You'll be a defining voice in engineering culture, product direction, and technical architecture — not just an executor of finished specs. If you thrive at the intersection of strong engineering craft and genuine product ownership, this role is for you.
What You'll Do
Own major clinician-facing workflows end-to-end — from whiteboard through implementation, testing, rollout, and iteration.
Collaborate closely with designers, founders, and clinicians to define product behavior rather than waiting for finished specs.
Drive frontend architecture and technical direction across provider and patient applications.
Influence APIs, data models, and overall system behavior while primarily owning the frontend.
Iterate quickly from rough concepts to production-quality experiences alongside a product designer.
Debug complex production issues spanning browsers, APIs, third-party integrations, and infrastructure.
Contribute to engineering culture through thoughtful code reviews, technical discussions, and pragmatic decision-making.
Leverage AI development tools as part of your workflow while maintaining full ownership of system design and production quality.
What We're Looking For
Must-haves:
Demonstrated experience leading significant technical initiatives or owning major product areas.
Strong hands-on experience with React and Next.js (TypeScript familiarity expected).
Proven track record of owning user-facing features from concept through production.
Comfort collaborating across the frontend/backend boundary — including working with APIs and debugging backend behavior.
Experience working directly with designers, customers, or domain experts to shape product direction.
Experience delivering workflows in a fast-moving, early-stage startup environment.
Strong product intuition, engineering judgment, and debugging skills.
Willingness to commute to a Midtown Manhattan office 3 days per week (hybrid).
Comfort using AI-assisted development tools responsibly while maintaining ownership of what you build.
Nice to haves:
Experience in healthcare, with FHIR, or other regulated software environments.
Prior experience as an early or founding engineer at a startup.
Experience building products used throughout the workday, where usability and workflow continuity matter as much as correctness.
Experience evolving or maintaining a design system.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary: $180,000 – $220,000 annually
Early-team equity commensurate with a founding engineer role
Visa sponsorship: Not available
Location
This is a hybrid role based in New York City, NY. You'll be expected in the office 3 days per week. Remote-only candidates will not be considered for this position.
Clera is building autonomous AI agents that handle end-to-end recruiting operations. The company's AI agents find candidates, write personalized outreach, handle conversations, qualify fit, and schedule interviews without human intervention. Clera has raised pre-seed funding from top investors and has grown to marketplace scale with 40,000+ talents and hundreds of top startup customers. The company is now scaling its AI-native recruiting platform by hiring operators who supervise the agents, handle high-judgment moments, and close candidates that require human touch.
