Senior Software Engineer

**Toku** Senior Software Engineer; Up to $250K base + generous equity/token; United States (Remote, occasional in-person)

**About Company** Toku is the global employment and payroll infrastructure for token compensation — it lets companies compliantly pay employees in any asset, over any payment rail, anywhere in the world. It powers stablecoin and token payroll for some of the largest companies in crypto, integrating with custody providers, enterprise HR/payroll systems, and blockchain networks across 100+ countries.

It's a small team that ships fast, measures progress daily, and builds with AI agents by default — engineers and non-engineers alike ship production code with AI tools. The pace is measured in days, not sprints.

**About the Role** A senior, hands-on full-stack engineer who owns entire product surfaces end to end — finding the problem, designing the solution, building it with AI tools, shipping it, and iterating daily. Explicitly not a product lead, forward-deployed, or integration engineer: this person codes heavily and also reviews and raises the quality of work from other contributors. They work closely with the founder, who moves fast — for the right person, an offer can come quickly.

**Responsibilities** - Own whole product surfaces end to end: problem discovery, design, build, ship, iterate. - Talk to customers directly and build from their perspective. - Ship production software daily using AI coding agents as the primary workflow. - Make sound architecture and production tradeoffs (API design, data modeling, cloud infrastructure). - Review contributors' code across varying skill levels and raise overall quality.

**Required Skills** A. Demonstrated experience shipping full-stack production software with real users — hands-on and coding heavily (not a product lead, FDE, or integration engineer). B. Fintech / money-movement domain experience (non-negotiable) — has built products that move money (payments, banking, lending, payroll, or similar). C. Daily use of AI coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or similar) as the primary workflow, not supplementary. D. 7–10 years of experience, combining big-company training with early-stage startup chaos (ideally pre-COVID). E. Solid system-architecture depth: API design, data modeling, cloud infrastructure, production tradeoffs.

**Bonus Skills** - TypeScript, Python, React, Node.js, or similar modern stacks. - Agentic workflows: orchestrating AI agents, agent-driven CI/CD, MCP integrations. - Background in traditional fintech, payroll, or HR tech (see Red Flags on crypto). - Small, high-output teams where daily shipping is the norm; direct enterprise-customer experience.

**Logistical Info** - Location: Remote-friendly and location-flexible - NY and Denver are the current hubs, and the founder is open to candidates elsewhere. Firm requirement: travel for in-person final interviews and periodic in-person time with colleagues. - Compensation: Up to $250K base; Generous/aggressive equity plus token upside - Number of openings: 1–2 (a second hire if the candidate is strong enough). - **Other:** Founder-led, high-autonomy environment with end-to-end product ownership. AI-native team that ships daily.

**Ideal Background** - Strongest signal — a former founder or founding engineer who has been through real startup chaos, made hard calls, and built through it ("an adult"). - Domain — traditional fintech / money-movement experience (payments, banking, lending, payroll). - Comp mentality — early-stage-startup risk appetite: values equity/token upside over a maxed-out cash base. - Not a fit — brilliant L6/L7 FAANG with no startup chaos; SpaceX / Palantir / AI-native with no money-movement domain; crypto-company backgrounds (especially 2022–2023 joiners) with high comp expectations.

**Green Flags** - Founder / founding-engineer background; high agency, low ego, "an adult." - Big-company training + early-stage startup arc (pre-COVID); real scar tissue. - Genuine daily AI-coding workflow — directs agents, reviews output, owns what ships. - Real fintech / money-movement depth; strong product taste plus production-grade architecture. - Early-stage risk mentality: excited by equity/token upside over a maxed-out base. - Willing to travel for in-person interviews and periodic in-person; currently employed, or a clear reason if not.

**Red Flags** - Inflated salary expectations — the most common rejection reason. ~$280K–$350K base, or expecting late-stage / public-company comp, is an automatic pass ($250K base is the ceiling). - Too frontend-heavy — this is a full-stack role. - Short stints / job-hopping ("too jumpy"). - Crypto / web3 background — most are a pass (inflated comp; 2022–2023 crypto joiners seen as "overpaid"). - Wanting a high base together with a fully remote role. - Brilliant FAANG with no real chaos; no fintech / money-movement domain; career started during or after COVID. - Unemployed 3+ months without a clear reason; only experience is post-scale Stripe / Rippling (yellow flag). - Product lead / FDE / integration engineer rather than a hands-on coder; unwilling to meet in person.