The Lead Full Stack Engineer will partner with the CEO to drive technical vision, build SaaS features, mentor engineers, and manage projects.
About Portex
Portex is building a procurement and payment operating system for the $4 trillion logistics industry - the backbone of the global economy. We’re building simple yet revolutionary freight procurement, payment and financing products so all businesses can realize pricing efficiency and transparency while navigating global trade.
Our founding team has backgrounds from Flexport, Uber, Motive, Plaid and Autodesk. We’ve raised an $8M+ seed round of funding from amazing VC firms including Susa Ventures, Footwork, Cowboy Ventures and Base10, and an incredible group of angels from founding teams at Uber, Affirm, Brex, Plaid, Cloudtrucks, Motive and more.
About the role
Portex is seeking an exceptional and highly driven Head of Engineering with a strong backend focus to join our team. This role will be a key partner to the CEO, instrumental in driving the technical vision and architecture of our platform as we rapidly scale. You will have a huge impact, getting in on the ground floor and playing a defining role in our future success. You will be a leader and you will actively code every day for the foreseeable future.
What you'll do
- Partner directly with the CEO to advocate for the engineering team and act as a thought partner on product strategy
- Work closely with Product and customers to deeply understand requirements and ensure problems are solved at the right level, drawing on your highly customer-centric approach
- Plan and execute complex code migrations while managing ongoing customer demands
- Envision and execute on the long-term vision for the platform's architecture
- Build end-to-end SaaS features across the full tech stack with a focus on the backend
- Provide thoughtful code reviews and technical mentorship to other engineers
- Co-lead retrospectives with Product to drive continuous improvement across the eng team
- Estimate work, set release targets, and lead standups/sprint planning to deliver against dates
- Manage multiple projects simultaneously while assessing priorities through prioritization skills
- Manage team members and lead recruiting efforts for future team members
Qualifications
Proven track record of building new products from the ground up (0 to 1)
Experience working directly with and gathering insights from non-technical stakeholders
Natural leadership abilities with an instinct to step up, solve problems, and push those around you to level up
Exceptional communication skills to paint a vision, provide proactive updates, and escalate issues
Comfortable negotiating product roadmaps against business requirements
Entrepreneurial, extremely proactive mindset obsessed with building a company/startup
High emotional stability to keep a level head under stress
Internally motivated and driven to an exceptionally high personal bar
Open to flexing into informal Product Management responsibilities when needed
Able to prioritize and do deep work across multiple critical tasks/projects
Experience implementing AI or LLM’s into B2B workflows
Technical Skills
Deep expertise in Typescript, Node.js, architecting full-stack TypeScript apps
Solid skills with React, PostgreSQL, Redux, Prisma (nice to have)
Previous AWS experience (Pulumi a plus)
Experience implementing & driving engineering culture/best practices
Portex San Francisco, California, USA Office
San Francisco, CA, United States
Similar Jobs
Machine Learning • Security • Software • Analytics • Defense
Lead full-stack mission engineering: design, build, deploy, and integrate secure software for DoD/IC missions. Lead engineering teams, collaborate with military/government users, prototype MVPs, perform field deployment and testing, and deliver high-performance, user-focused interfaces.
Top Skills:
APIsPythonReactTypescript
Artificial Intelligence • Cloud • Consulting • Cybersecurity
Lead technical direction for large, multi-vendor AWS modernization programs. Own target event-driven and agentic architectures, review code and specifications, set engineering standards, engage VP-level stakeholders, coordinate multi-team and vendor delivery, enforce architecture governance, and produce decision records and documentation.
Top Skills:
Api GatewayAws Ecs FargateAws LambdaAws Step FunctionsAws Well-Architected FrameworkBedrockDynamoDBEventbridgeGraphQLJavaScriptKanbanNode.jsPythonRestS3ScrumTerraform
Software • Manufacturing
Design, implement, and ship end-to-end features across backend services and a React web client for a multi-tenant ERP. Own schema design, migrations respecting row-level security, integrations with platform services, and deliver high-quality, performant code with CI/CD, tests, and code review. Leverage AI coding assistants responsibly and collaborate cross-functionally to evolve shared platform libraries and developer tooling.
Top Skills:
Aws BedrockAws CdkAws EcsAws RdsAws S3Ci/CdClaude CodeCopilotCursorDocument IntelligenceExpressFastifyGitHibernateLlmMikroormNestjsNode.jsPostgresPrismaRagReactTypeormTypescript
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area attracts more startup funding than any other region in the world. Home to Stanford University and UC Berkeley, leading VC firms and several of the world’s most valuable companies, the Bay Area is the place to go for anyone looking to make it big in the tech industry. That said, San Francisco has a lot to offer beyond technology thanks to a thriving art and music scene, excellent food and a short drive to several of the country’s most beautiful recreational areas.
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
