About the role

We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer who thrives in early-stage startup environments and enjoys solving complex problems with autonomy and ownership. You will play a key role in designing, building, and evolving core systems that must scale reliably while supporting rapid product iteration.

This is not an outsourced execution role. CDR’s R&D and product organization is based in Bangladesh. You will collaborate directly with US-based founders and leadership, and your voice will shape the product.

This role is ideal for engineers who combine strong technical judgment, pragmatic execution, and collaborative leadership without needing close supervision.

What You’ll Do

Design and build systems that scale, evolve, and remain resilient under real-world complexity.
Write maintainable, production-ready software with long-term sustainability in mind.
Make architectural decisions with strong technical taste and practical trade-offs.
Own problems end-to-end — from ambiguity to shipped solutions.
Bring product instinct to your work, championing usability and user experience alongside technical excellence.
Improve engineering standards, development workflows, and system reliability.

Must-Have Qualifications

Technical Requirements

5+ years of professional experience
Deep expertise in TypeScript across the full stack, with strong understanding of type systems, scalability patterns, and maintainable architecture.
Advanced experience building modern web applications using React and Next.js, including server components, data fetching strategies, and performance optimization.
Strong backend engineering skills with Node.js, designing APIs, services, and distributed systems that are reliable and observable.
Experience designing modular, extensible system architectures (monolith-first or service-oriented where appropriate).
Proficiency in API design principles (REST, GraphQL, or RPC) with emphasis on consistency, versioning, and long-term maintainability.
Solid understanding of database design and data modeling, including relational and NoSQL systems, indexing strategies, and query optimization.
Experience implementing authentication, authorization, and security best practices in production systems.
Experience building and maintaining production deployment pipelines, CI/CD workflows, and automated testing strategies.

Additional Requirements

Proven experience leading the design and development of systems that scale and survive operational chaos.
Track record of shipping clean, maintainable, production-grade software.
Excellent judgment in architecture and system design.
Strong communicator and collaborator who takes feedback well and leads without ego.
Comfortable navigating ambiguity and operating with full autonomy
Experience working in fast-moving startup environments or similar ownership-driven roles.

Great to Have

Experience with AWS or cloud-native infrastructure.
Experience building AI systems, especially agent-based or AI-driven applications.
Familiarity with Coding Agents (Claude, Copilot etc.)‍
Bachelor’s degree in CSE / IT / CSSE / Computer Science or related field.

Work Environment & Benefits

All government-declared holidays
Flexible leave policy
Hybrid work model — workweek split between office and remote.
Access to cutting edge tooling and hardware. Whatever you need to do your best work.

What Success Looks Like

You independently identify and solve high-impact engineering problems.
Systems you design and own remain maintainable as the company scales.
Teams move faster because of your technical leadership and collaboration.
Engineering quality improves without adding unnecessary process.

Submit Your Application

Who We Are

CDR External Development is a California-based startup building the infrastructure for how creative industries resource their most ambitious projects. Our products combine deep industry intelligence with AI-native tooling to transform how studios, publishers, and creators find, evaluate, and collaborate with external partners.

We are a small team moving fast, shipping continuously, and solving hard problems from first principles. There is no bureaucracy here - only ownership, curiosity, and a strong bias toward execution.

If you enjoy building from zero, making impactful technical decisions, and working alongside exceptional people, you'll feel at home here. We're building a world-class engineering organization from the ground up, and every early engineer helps shape the product, the culture, and the team itself.