Software Engineer (Product)

This is a product engineering role in the strongest sense of the term.

You work close to customers.

We believe customer proximity is a competitive advantage. Engineers talk directly to customers, join calls, and participate in tight feedback loops. Forward-deployed work is part of the job - not as support, but as the fastest path to product insight.

You shape what we build.

Engineers here don't wait for fully formed specs. If you see a problem worth solving, you're expected to make the case, design the experiment, and build the v0. Good product judgment is valued as highly as clean execution.

You ship across the stack.

You'll work wherever the problem is - backend systems processing TBs of internet-scale data, frontend workflows that make complex analysis feel intuitive, agent frameworks that automate what used to take weeks of manual work. Titles matter less than ownership.

You operate with clarity and focus.

Mondays we align. Fridays we retro. In between, you're trusted to prioritize what matters most - while staying sharp to signal from customers and the market.

The Team

"The team you build is the company you build." — Vinod Khosla

You'll work alongside engineers from Palantir, Notion, Meta, Microsoft, Slack, and Datadog. Several have founded startups.

But credentials aren't the point.

This team cares deeply about craft, slope, and truth-seeking. People pair on hard problems, challenge each other in code review, and give direct, thoughtful feedback in 1:1s. Mentorship is intentional, not accidental - you'll learn faster here because the bar is high and the coaching is real.

We're building Outtake to be a long-term network of builders: people who go on to lead teams, start companies, and back each other over decades. The goal is simple - working here should make you meaningfully better.

You

This role tends to excite people who've built something from scratch and want to do it again - with better tools, sharper teammates, and real distribution.

You might be a fit if:

• You've shipped products that users actually used - and at least one that failed, and you understand why that mattered
• You ramp quickly, thrive in ambiguity, and have a strong bias to action
• You care deeply about why something is being built, not just how
• You understand what success looks like for the customer and the business, not just the code
• You've done some form of forward-deployed or customer-embedded engineering and found it energizing

If you need a roadmap handed to you, this won't be a fit.

If you want to help write the roadmap, you'll feel at home.

Bonus if you've:

• Founded something (even if it didn't work)
• Worked in forward-deployed or customer-embedded roles
• Built with agents, LLMs, or large-scale data systems