Software Engineer - MeritFirst

The role

You will build the MeritFirst platform, including the candidate experience, assessment engine, and employer workflows. You will work directly with the founder and product team to shape the system from first principles.

What you will do

• Build the core product including candidate and employer experiences.
• Develop a flexible assessment platform.
• Own problems end to end from system design to deployment and iteration.
• Turn human workflows into software.
• Build evaluation systems that are consistent, interpretable, and auditable.
• Connect assessment performance and employer decisions to close the learning loop.
• Apply AI models to improve assessment and experience.
• Treat reliability, security, privacy, and accessibility as foundational properties.
• Improve architecture, testing, observability, and performance.
• Establish technical judgment and operating habits for future engineers.

Required qualifications

• Built and operated meaningful production software.
• Exceptional technical foundations.
• Ability to move between shaping product, designing systems, writing code, and understanding production.
• Depth in at least one part of the stack and enough range to follow problems.
• Excellent debugger.
• Ability to combine speed with judgment.
• Strong product instincts.
• Built production software both with and without AI assistance.
• Communicate clearly and make technical tradeoffs legible to non-engineers.

Nice to have

• Been an early engineer, technical founder, or senior individual contributor.
• Built an ambitious product at a startup.
• Owned a critical system at scale.
• Made meaningful open-source contributions.
• Developed exceptional ability outside a conventional path.

Before you apply

• Hiring process includes a short initial screen, a conversation with a team member, a role-relevant technical exercise, and final-round conversations.
• You may be asked to work both with and without AI assistance.

About the company

8vc is building MeritFirst, a platform that creates objective ways for people to demonstrate critical thinking, problem-solving, adaptability, and execution to help companies hire based on demonstrated ability.