Staff Product Engineer

ppWe are looking for a senior Ruby on Rails engineer to become the technical backbone of our product. You'll own the hardest PRs, raise the bar for the entire codebase, and eventually take technical load off the CEO. This is not a management role. It's a hands‑on, high‑trust position for someone who can ship production code across every part of the product. /p h3About SearchApi /h3 pSearchApi is a real‑time SERP API delivering structured data from 100+ search engines and sources, including Google Search, Google Shopping, Google Jobs, Bing, Baidu, YouTube, Amazon, and many more. We power production workloads for Fortune 500 companies and fast‑moving startups who need reliable search data at scale. /p pWe're a lean, profitable, bootstrapped team. No VC pressure, no bloat. Just engineers shipping real products to real customers. /p h3Why Join Us? /h3 ul liOwn the product. You'll work across the entire codebase. Billing, API, dashboard, enterprise features, internal tools. Everything. /li liHigh trust, high impact. The CEO/CTO currently reviews the hardest PRs. You'll take that over. /li liShape the technical direction. Introduce better patterns, raise code quality, build compounding systems. /li liWork directly with the CEO/CTO. No layers. Direct collaboration on product and technical decisions. /li liBootstrapped and Profitable. We answer to customers, not investors. /li /ul pWe are searching for someone who can eventually replace the CEO/CTO's technical load. Not a manager. A builder who ships with an extremely high bar. /p h3Values /h3 ul liWe do everything the Rails Way. If you don't like DHH's style, this may not be the place for you. /li liWe embrace the one person framework. /li liWe hire Managers of One. We trust you to figure it out. /li liRemote‑only. Async‑first. Results‑driven. /li liTransparency. No politics. /li /ul h3Tech Stack /h3 ul liRuby on Rails 8.1 /li liRuby 3.4 /li liHotwire (Stimulus.
JS + Turbo) /li liTailwindCSS (TailwindUI components) /li liPostgreSQL /li liRedis /li liSidekiq /li liStripe /li liTerraform + AWS /li /ul pWe use Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, Intercom, GitHub, and Slack daily. We ship multiple times a day with CI/CD. /p h3You Control AI, AI Doesn't Control You /h3 pWe ship faster because we use AI tools aggressively. Cursor and Claude. But you own the output. If you can't evaluate what AI produces, you're not ready for this role. You'll also help introduce more AI into how we build and ship. /p h3What You'll Do /h3 ul liOwn the hardest PRs. Complex features, tricky refactors, performance‑critical code. The stuff that requires senior judgment. /li liReview other engineers' PRs. Raise the bar. Catch issues before they ship. Mentor through code review. /li liBuild enterprise features. SAML, SCIM, audit logs, permissions. Whatever enterprise customers need. /li liWork on billing and payments. Stripe integrations, subscription logic, usage‑based billing. /li liCreate and iterate on product features. API playground, dashboard improvements, developer experience. /li liDevelop in‑house algorithms. We build custom solutions. You'll design and implement them. /li liDebug and optimize performance. Memory profiling, CPU profiling, query optimization. You find the bottleneck and fix it. /li liWork with native gems and low‑level bindings when needed. Different architectures, compilation issues, C extensions. /li liShip frontend with good design sense. We use TailwindUI. You should be comfortable building clean, functional UI. /li liMaintain security standards. Understand common vulnerabilities. Review code with security in mind. /li liStay current with Rails and AI. Know what's new. Adopt what makes sense. Always look for compounding benefits. /li /ul h3As you grow into the role /h3 ul liOversee other engineers' work. /li liMake architectural decisions. /li liPotentially gain production access and work with Terraform. /li liLead new projects or pivots. /li /ul h3The Hard Parts /h3 pThis role is not for everyone. Here's what makes it hard: /p ul liBroad scope. You're not specializing in one area. You touch everything. Billing, auth, API, frontend, infra. /li liHigh bar. Your code needs to be excellent. You're setting the standard. /li liAmbiguity. Sometimes you'll decide what to build, not just how to build it. /li liResponsibility. When you ship something, you own the outcome. No one else to blame. /li liFast pace. We ship daily. We expect results, not activity. /li /ul pIf you want a narrow role with clear boundaries, this isn't for you. /p h3About You /h3 ul liMany years of Ruby on Rails experience. This is not a mid‑level role. You've built and shipped production Rails apps. /li liProven track record. You can point to systems you've built, problems you've solved, code you're proud of. /li liStripe experience. Required. You've worked with Stripe billing, subscriptions, webhooks. /li liProduct thinker. You don't just build what you're told. You think about what customers need and wh