Founding Engineer

Description

Duets Network is an AI-powered platform connecting startups and investors across the sports and entertainment industries. We are building a dynamic ecosystem that bridges founders, capital, and strategic partners to drive meaningful growth and collaboration at the intersection of technology and culture.

The initial product is built out, and we're now looking for a fractional Founding Engineer to guide the technical side moving forward: architecture, infrastructure, data/recommendation systems, security, and scalability.

Our founding team: CEO, ex-Universal Music Group; CBO, ex-Andreessen Horowitz. You'd work directly with the founders, with no existing engineering org, and would:

Assess and improve the existing React / Node.js / PostgreSQL / AWS codebase and infrastructure

Set engineering architecture, standards, and technical priorities

Design the data + recommendation/scoring layer behind founder/investor/partner matching

Build out DevOps, CI/CD, monitoring, and deployment processes

Make pragmatic build-vs-buy decisions and coordinate external engineers/vendors as needed

Serve as the primary technical team member, with real influence over the technology foundation and future engineering org

We're particularly interested in someone who has owned architecture end-to-end. Ideally with experience in matching, recommendation, ranking, or scoring systems. You should be comfortable explaining technical tradeoffs to non-technical founders and investors.

This is a fractional role (~10–15 hrs/wk), compensated with equity plus discretionary cash. It's a fit if you want the opportunity to be an early technical team member without a traditional full-time commitment. We're early-stage and moving fast, so you don't need to check every box, we're looking for someone curious, adaptable, and excited to build with us.

If interested, email team[at]duets[dot]network[dot]com with "Founding Engineer" in the subject line.