Senior Full Stack Product Engineer

About Shelf

Shelf builds software that helps enterprises make AI work in the real world. We build products people depend on, which means product judgment, engineering quality, and execution speed all matter at the same time.

About the Role

This role is for a senior full stack engineer with strong product instincts.

You will own meaningful product slices end to end: understand the problem, shape the approach, build the frontend and backend pieces, ship them, and improve them based on real usage. We want someone who is equally comfortable improving a user flow, shaping an API, and closing the loop on quality in production.

This is a product engineering role with real end-to-end ownership.

What You Will Own

• Build and ship user-facing product features across frontend and backend boundaries.
• Turn rough product goals into practical solutions with good scope, sensible trade-offs, and strong execution.
• Work comfortably in UI, application logic, APIs, and data flows rather than stopping at team boundaries.
• Partner closely with product and design while still being able to move when the spec is incomplete.
• Improve usability, clarity, performance, and reliability, not just feature completeness.
• Instrument what you ship so we can learn from production behavior and iterate quickly.
• Use AI tools daily to move faster and help improve internal workflows, tooling, and engineering leverage.
• Keep the bar high on code quality, testing, and ownership after launch.

What Strong Performance Looks Like

• You can take a vague product problem and turn it into a shipped, well-reasoned solution.
• Your features feel coherent end-to-end because you care about both implementation and product quality.
• You do not treat frontend and backend as separate worlds; you use both to solve the actual problem.
• You bring momentum. Work moves because you are on it.

What We Are Looking For

• Strong senior-level experience shipping production web products.
• Strong frontend ability with React and TypeScript or an equivalent modern web stack.
• Real backend ability. You do not need to be backend-only, but you can design and ship APIs, backend logic, and data flows when the product needs it.
• Strong product sense. You notice awkward flows, weak defaults, and unnecessary complexity, and you improve them.
• Good judgment about scope, iteration, and technical trade-offs.
• Clear communication and comfort working across engineering, product, and design.
• AI-native working style. You already use AI tools as part of daily implementation and problem solving, and you are excited to improve how engineering work gets done.

Strong Plus

• Experience with AI-powered product experiences such as chat, search, recommendations, workflows, or agent-like systems.
• Experience with Python, Node.js, or both on the backend.
• Experience owning product areas with limited oversight.
• Strong feel for performance, accessibility, and production quality in complex web applications.

How We Evaluate Fit

We care more about end-to-end ownership, product sense, and the ability to ship meaningful work than a perfect match to every framework on paper. If you are the kind of engineer who can make a product better from multiple angles, we want to talk.

What Shelf Offers

• B2B contract.
• Stock options.
• MacBook Pro.
• A strong AI-native engineering environment with modern tools and room to experiment.

Our Values:

Quality - We’re united by our focus on world‑class Quality. Quality in all things – starting with everything that leaves your desk. Everything you touch – every email, report, campaign, and piece of code – should be outstanding. Your work product should blow people away. Having people look at what you’ve done and say, “Wow.” That’s the standard here. Remember that how you do anything is how you do everything. Focus on craftsmanship—your ability to make things better.

Momentum - for us means that you should know that the things you’re responsible for are moving forward. When you look around and see something that’s stalled, get it moving again. We pride ourselves on “ball movement.” When your boss or team leaves you with something, they should return to see measurable progress. Small, continuous movement is our recipe for success. Constantly look for how to make the work around you move forward. We want you to initiate solutions, ideas, and progress. Don’t wait for it to come to you—reach out and create movement. All the time.

Accountability - We expect every team member to feel that they are accountable for more than anyone might normally expect. Each of us should feel real responsibility for things even at the edge of our control. We consistently share and align on expectations, give each other open and respectful feedback, and use those two drivers to ensure that every agreement we make with one another is clear and complete.

Hard Work - We’re here to do something difficult together. We care intensely about the mission and we expect that from our teammates. That care means that we work hard here. Hard work comes with long hours, extra effort…and real opportunity at Shelf. Your passion for creating and sustaining output is a part of our DNA. Support each other, cheer each other on, drive the mission forward. Great teams sustain intense effort together to win.

Learning Agility - We’re innovating in one of the fastest‑moving spaces in history at a time of accelerating global change. That’s incredibly exciting and requires each of us to commit fully to learning each and every day so that we can be the best at what we do. None of us know everything. All of us can learn anything. Staying open and constantly curious is a key success driver at Shelf. It also requires humility. We prize people who are consistently humble and open to making mistakes and growing from them. Recognize also that learning itself is a skill…we need you to be really good at it. Keep dialing in your own understanding about how you learn best and push yourself to keep growing.

Adapt and Thrive - Overcoming challenges lives deep in our DNA. We have a proud history of understanding and living the reality that obstacles are our opportunities…they’re the key to our success. Change is a constant in our business and fighting change is counterproductive. We need you to be good at being uncomfortable and understand that discomfort is the key to growth. Cultivate your own ability to adapt and know that struggling well is something you’ll share with every team you’re on at Shelf. Our company stories are about thriving through real difficulty…together.

Win Together - We win or lose as a team. Always. Everything you do here is connected to the rest of the organization. Part of our shared team environment demands full honesty…real candor and directness with one another. We expect you to constantly be thinking about how to support your teammates and the company, always acting in service to our shared mission and what’s best for the organization as a whole.