Founding Software Engineer

Ship product from day one inside a multi-billion-dollar federal arbitration market. Work with AI as a real collaborator, not a demo.

Location: San Francisco or Remote | Full Time

Why This Exists

A federal arbitration system called Independent Dispute Resolution, or IDR, now determines billions of dollars in healthcare payments each year. Providers win the vast majority of disputes, yet most eligible claims are never filed. The process is manual, fragmented, and resource-intensive, and most providers don't have the infrastructure to pursue what they're owed. The No Surprises Act created the framework, and the market already exists. Today it runs on spreadsheets, consultants, and static playbooks. We're building the first intelligent system designed to operate inside it.

The Role

As a Founding Software Engineer, you will build the product end to end alongside the Head of Engineering and a small, senior team. You will:

• Ship features across the stack — data pipelines, backend services, LLM integrations, and product UI
• Write, read, and iterate on specs.
• Turn a paragraph of intent into working code
• Use AI tooling (Claude Code, Cursor, agentic frameworks) as a core part of your workflow — to accelerate yourself, not replace your judgment
• Partner with operations directly. The person running a claim is often sitting next to you; their feedback is your backlog
• Build features for regulated environments where correctness, auditability, and financial impact are tightly coupled
• Take real ownership of production systems: observability, on-call, quality, and quick fixes included
• Help define engineering culture from the start: code review norms, testing posture, documentation habits

You will write code every day. You will also think about the product, the workflow, and the customer. We are not looking for ticket-takers; we are looking for engineers who want a say in what gets built and why.

Who You Are

You are AI-pilled. You have used AI tools to ship real work, and you have opinions about which ones are useful and which are hype. You stay current because the world is changing and you want to see the next shift before anyone else. You are a strong generalist. You're comfortable jumping between backend, frontend, data, and AI integration. You may not be an expert in every layer, but you can pick up what you need to ship the thing.

What You Bring

• 2+ years building and shipping production software. Full-stack exposure strongly preferred
• Meaningful hands-on experience with AI tooling and LLM-powered features.
• Comfort across the stack: TypeScript/Node, Python, SQL, a modern frontend framework.
• Experience building in regulated or security-sensitive environments (HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI, financial controls) is a plus

Why This Role

This is a chance to join a small founding team and build something real. You will ship product that moves money for real providers. You will work with AI as a true collaborator, and you will come out the other side with an operator's understanding of how healthcare payments actually work.

Compensation

Base salary range: $140,000 to $180,000, with meaningful equity. Specific offers are calibrated to experience, location, and scope of the role. We also cover standard health, dental, and vision benefits, and expect our team to take real vacation time.

Equal Opportunity

Recourse is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.