Paradigm — Software Engineer

• →3–5 years of experience in fullstack product engineering, with Go and/or React experience preferred [Required]

• Worked at a top-tier technology company; hands-on IC who shipped products in production (e.g., Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI) [Must have]
• Career trajectory shows upward momentum: currently or recently at a stronger company than where they started; appears deliberate and in control of their career [Required]

• CS degree or equivalent; non-target school backgrounds valued (scrappier — would rather take someone who went to a lower-ranked school and had a great career than someone who went to Stanford or MIT and had a good one) [Strongly preferred]

• Deployed distributed services (Redis, PubSub, RPC, Postgres); developed frontend applications (React, Vite, Tanstack) [Required]
• Experience with Go in production environments [Strongly preferred]
• Competitive programming or ICPC background [Strongly preferred]

• Hustler-type background: shows growth and ambition, like moving from a small town to a big tech company [Must have]
• Conveys complex technical concepts clearly to peers [Required]

• Must work in-person 5 days/week in SF [Must have]
• Visa sponsorship available including O-1 [Strongly preferred]

• Returned to the same company after an internship for a full-time role (better to show progression)

• Salary | $225,000–$275,000
• Equity | Competitive equity
• On-site policy | 5 days/week in-office in San Francisco
• Visa sponsorship | Open to visa transfers (OPT, H-1B), including O-1; no restrictions
• Employment type | Full-time
• Location | San Francisco, CA

1. Are you able to work in San Francisco and come into the office 5 days per week?
2. Walk me through a time you left a company (or chose not to return) to pursue something more challenging. What drove that decision and what came out of it?
3. Can you be on-site? If not, are you willing to relocate?
4. What is your salary expectation?
5. How actively are you exploring new opportunities?

Updated Jun 4, 2026

• Career trajectory shows limited growth or decline
• Experience does not match the role's required focus
• Candidate's background includes unwanted technology areas
• Candidate lacks top-tier big-tech experience