Founding Full-Stack Software Engineer

Help scale an established education platform across AustraliaSylligence is a Queensland-based education technology company building an AI-powered learning and exam-preparation platform for Australian secondary students and educators. The core Sylligence platform is already built, live and used by thousands of students. We have begun onboarding schools and are now entering our next phase: strengthening the platform, expanding into additional Australian states and scaling our school offering. This is not a blank-canvas MVP role. The product already includes an extensive set of student learning, assessment, AI, curriculum and educator features. We are looking for a Founding Software Engineer to take ownership of the technical foundation alongside the founders and help guide the platform through its growth stage. The opportunityYou will become Sylligence’s first major engineering hire and an important member of the founding team. The role combines ongoing technical ownership with targeted product development. Rather than rebuilding the platform, your focus will be maintaining its reliability, improving existing systems, shipping high-value features and supporting expansion across new states, subjects and schools. You will work directly with the founders and have the opportunity to influence product direction, technical priorities and the future engineering culture of the company. Over time, the successful person should become capable of independently managing much of Sylligence’s day-to-day engineering and helping build the wider technical team. What you’ll doMaintain and improve an established production platform.Investigate and resolve bugs, reliability issues and performance bottlenecks.Take ownership of features from planning through testing and release.Help expand Sylligence from Queensland into additional Australian education systems.Support the onboarding and technical needs of schools and educators.Improve testing, monitoring, security and development workflows.Work across the frontend, database and server-side application.Contribute to AI-powered learning, assessment and content systems.Translate feedback from students, educators and founders into technical improvements.Identify worthwhile improvements without waiting for every task to be assigned.Contribute to product and architectural decisions.Help establish engineering processes and support future technical hires. Our technologyOur current platform uses: React and TypeScriptVite and Tailwind CSSSupabase and PostgreSQLDeno Edge FunctionsVitest and PlaywrightGitHub and VercelAI APIs, retrieval systems and curriculum-specific data pipelinesExperience with every technology is not required. We value engineers who can enter an unfamiliar system, understand it quickly and make reliable improvements. Who we’re looking forYou might be an experienced full-stack engineer seeking meaningful ownership, an exceptional early-career engineer who has already shipped substantial products or someone specifically looking to join a growing company at the founding-team level. You should have: Evidence of building and shipping a substantial full-stack product.Strong JavaScript or TypeScript and modern frontend fundamentals.Experience with APIs, relational databases and authentication.An understanding of testing, deployment and production reliability.The ability to investigate unfamiliar code independently.Strong judgement when handling security and user data.Initiative beyond simply completing assigned tickets.An effective AI-assisted development workflow.The discipline to review and verify AI-generated code.Clear written communication and an interest in documenting important systems.Genuine interest in Australian education and the opportunity to build a significant national platform.Experience with Supabase, PostgreSQL, Row Level Security, education technology, AI applications or Australian secondary education is advantageous but not essential. Ownership and remunerationThis opportunity is designed for someone who values genuine ownership and wants to participate directly in the long-term growth of the company. The proposed package may include: A meaningful equity option grant, potentially ranging up to 10%.An initial cash component.Potential participation in future profit-sharing or company distributions as Sylligence grows.The opportunity for the role and remuneration to expand alongside the company.The exact structure will depend on experience, commitment, availability and the level of responsibility the candidate is prepared to assume. The upper end of the equity range is reserved for an exceptional candidate who commits long term and develops into a genuine founder-level technical owner—not simply someone completing occasional development tasks. Any equity, options, profit participation or distributions will be subject to formal agreements, vesting conditions, company performance and applicable approvals. Options are a long-term and illiquid form of ownership, may be diluted and may ultimately have no value. The full proposed package will be discussed transparently before a candidate completes any technical assessment. Why join Sylligence?Join after the core platform has already been built and validated.Work on a live product used by thousands of students.Help support schools already beginning to use the platform.Receive meaningful ownership rather than a token employee grant.Work directly with the founders and influence company direction.Take responsibility for an existing, feature-rich technical platform.Help expand Sylligence across Australian states, subjects and schools.Shape the engineering function from an early stage.Participate directly in the long-term value you help create. Hiring processOur expected process is: Application and portfolio review.Short conversation with the founders.Technical and product discussion based on work you have already shipped.Small, paid and time-boxed practical exercise for finalists.Final discussion covering responsibilities, availability and ownership structure.We care more about how you build, reason, communicate and verify your work than your ability to memorise algorithm puzzles. How to applyPlease include: Your résumé or LinkedIn profile.Your GitHub profile, portfolio or examples of shipped products.A brief explanation of the most substantial product or feature you personally built.How you use AI tools during software development.Your current availability and earliest potential starting date.Why a high-ownership role at an Australian education company interests you.Applicants must be located in Australia and have the right to work in Australia.