Lead Engineer
Full-time

The Role

We're looking for a hands-on engineering lead to own the build of ParentConnect's platform. You'll architect and ship the polished v1 product that proves out Chicago and lays the foundation for national expansion, using an AI-assisted development approach that keeps the team lean while the product stays high-craft.

About Us

Early parenthood should be one of the most connected times in a person's life. Instead, for millions of families, it's one of the loneliest.

ParentConnect exists to rebuild the village. We're creating a new kind of social infrastructure that uses technology to help expecting and new parents form meaningful, lasting relationships in the real world. We thoughtfully match parents based on factors such as location, stage of parenthood, interests, experiences, and availability - and then facilitate in-person connection to each other and to community events and resources.

We are not building for more screen time. We are building for IRL friendship, support, and belonging.

Following a successful beta in Spring 2026, we are expanding into Chicago and creating the playbook for bringing ParentConnect to communities across the country. As one of our earliest hires, you’ll help build a mission-driven product from the ground up - and shape how technology can strengthen real human connection.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the architecture and development of ParentConnect’s v1 mobile and backend platform, including AI-powered community matching and recommendations, local events, resource discovery and Places API integration, LLM-powered content summarization, subscriptions, and analytics

  • Own security and data-privacy practices end to end, given the sensitivity of family and health-adjacent data

  • Set engineering standards and AI-assisted development workflows that let a small team ship a polished consumer product quickly

  • Partner directly with ParentConnect’s founders and UX designer to transform community insights into intuitive product experiences, owning the technical architecture and implementation decisions that bring our product roadmap to life

  • The right candidate has the potential to grow into a core leadership role at ParentConnect, with the opportunity to help build the engineering team and hire, mentor, and lead additional engineers as we begin scaling in Year 2

Requirements

  • At least 2–3 years of hands-on software engineering experience, with the confidence to take ownership and learn quickly as the product evolves

  • Comfortable using AI-assisted development tools and excited to help establish practical workflows that make the entire team faster and more effective

  • Strong foundations in security and data privacy, ideally with experience handling sensitive personal, family, or health-adjacent data

  • Excited to roll up your sleeves and serve as both ParentConnect’s primary builder and its senior technical and security voice

  • Able to communicate technical decisions clearly and provide context for conversations with key stakeholders, including investors and strategic partners

  • Resourceful, curious, and action-oriented - you enjoy solving ambiguous problems, testing ideas quickly, and finding pragmatic ways to move the product forward

  • Startup or early-stage experience is strongly preferred, especially experience building and shipping a consumer product from an early phase

Location & Commitments

  • Full-time

  • Based in the Chicago area or able to work closely with our Chicago launch team from our Evanston office; hybrid and remote arrangements may be considered

  • Some flexibility expected during the initial build and launch period

To Apply

Send your resume and a short note explaining why you’d be a strong fit to info@joinparentconnect.com.

Please also include links to any relevant products, projects, or technical work you’re proud of. If your work is not public, briefly describe what you built, your role, and the technical decisions you owned.