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Founding Principal Engineer

Handspring· Engineering
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Hybrid (New York City)$200k - $240k + equityFull-timePosted 3mo ago

About the role

Founding senior technical leader responsible for setting engineering direction, leading onshore/offshore teams, and building a scalable, secure, HIPAA-compliant tech foundation as Handspring scales beyond Series B.

Responsibilities

  • Set the technical direction. Own architecture across telehealth, EHR, therapist onboarding, patient dashboard, and AI usage.
  • Help make the build/buy decisions. We do not build for the sake of building, and are thoughtful about what to outsource vs build.
  • Write the code that matters. Stay hands-on as a top individual contributor on the hardest, highest-stakes problems.
  • Lead the team. Direct and level up the offshore engineers, establish how we work (code review, testing, on-call, incident response), and bring rigor without bureaucracy.
  • Own reliability and security. Be accountable for the uptime and correctness of clinical systems, and for engineering practices that hold up to HIPAA and payor scrutiny.
  • Build the eng org. As we grow, hire onshore engineers, define how the team is structured, and set the culture and standards a larger team will inherit.
  • Define the stack. Currently use TypeScript across the stack, Node and React, deployed on AWS. You will help define the stack as we scale. We adopt new tech for leverage, not novelty.
  • Partner closely. Work directly with the CEO and translate clinical, growth, and operations needs into technical plans the team can execute.

Qualifications

  • 8+ years building production software, including time at the staff/principal level.
  • Deep full-stack strength. Comfortable owning everything from schema to UI.
  • Led while staying hands-on: set standards, mentored strong engineers, directed teams, and raised quality without stepping away from the code.
  • Experience working with distributed or offshore teams, or strong instincts for how to make that work.
  • Built in regulated, high-reliability, or data-sensitive environments (healthcare experience is a plus) and take security and correctness seriously.
  • Comfortable with ambiguity and limited resources, biased to ship, and energized by being the one who figures it out.
  • Wants to build in person.

Skills

Required:ArchitectureFull-stack developmentTeam leadershipSecurity/compliance (HIPAA)
Last updated Aug 5, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Handspring

Pediatric mental health care that’s proven to work

Handspring Health provides children and families with essential mental health treatment, counseling, and lifelong skills that empower their success.

Mental HealthTherapyChildrenYoung AdultsBehavioral Health
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