Location: New York City preferred. Remote available, but must travel 1-2 weeks per quarter to NYC.

Compensation: $180K–$250K + 2%–4% equity - 4–6 week mutual alignment trial typical

Reports to: CEO

About us

1 in 3 Americans who qualify for government benefits never receive them -because the system is fragmented, manual, and nearly impossible to navigate. Over $500B flows through outdated, unconnected infrastructure every year.

Starlight is building the core infrastructure layer that connects financial institutions and fintechs directly to government benefits — helping underserved households access SNAP, LIHEAP, utility support, and more.

Starlight is a B2B2C company - we already partner with 15+ Financial Institutions, reach over 700k users and have found over $15m for the households we serve (2025 wrapped). We are accelerating impact, partnerships and products as we scale.

We are backed by Caffeinated Capital, Commerce Ventures, Trustage Ventures, Garuda Ventures and industry leading angels.

The role

This is a founding technical leadership (head of Engineering) role - architect and own the core stack and product experience powered by:

• Tracking program eligibility and application process
• Prediction models for each household using first party and third party data
• AI-native agents that navigate complex benefits systems
• Real-time communication systems adaptive to partner needs
• Experimentation infrastructure

You do not inherit a roadmap; you will help define it. Help shape engineering culture, technical direction, and velocity standards from the ground up.

Who You Are

• Engineer first. Founder mindset.
• Relish product ownership.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and ownership.