Full Stack Software Engineer (iOS-Leaning)

Full Stack Software Engineer (iOS-Leaning)

Los Angeles, CA | Full-Time | In-Office 5 Days/Week | Product & Engineering

Crucial Recruiting is partnering with a seed-stage consumer social startup, backed by a top-tier venture fund and a group of well-known operators from streaming and social, building a mobile-first platform where fans watch short-form narrative series and talk about them with each other in the same place. The thesis is straightforward: mobile is where narrative video is going, and it will be deeply social. Short-form narrative video is currently the fastest-growing category in consumer video across the U.S., Europe and China.

About the Opportunity

This is the second engineering hire, and you would own the mobile experience end to end. Native iOS is the heart of the product and where you will spend most of your time, but shared links are how a social product actually spreads, so the mobile web surface is yours too. You will partner directly with the existing backend engineer on services, and write endpoints yourself when that is faster. You are not implementing someone else's spec: you work with the founder on what is worth building, what is not, and what users are telling you.

What You'll Do

Native iOS

• Own the iOS app end to end in Swift and SwiftUI: the player, the feed, discovery, and every social primitive a fan touches
• Take screens from sketch to shipped with no handoff, and hold strong opinions about how a tap should feel
• Set the iOS architecture and component vocabulary every engineer hired after you builds on

Mobile Web

• Build the React mobile web experience so someone arriving through a shared link meets the same craft as someone arriving through the App Store
• Treat web as a real product surface rather than a download funnel

Full-Stack Reach

• Partner with the backend engineer on Node.js services, and write the endpoints yourself when that is the faster path
• Own the boundary between client and server, and the event taxonomy the team measures with

Product & Craft

• Work directly with the founder on roadmap, tradeoffs, and what the team is learning from users
• Use AI tooling productively in daily development, including knowing when to push back on what it produced

What We're Looking For

• Demonstrated track record shipping consumer-facing native iOS apps in Swift and SwiftUI
• Real React ability: you can carry a polished mobile web experience on your own
• Working Node.js knowledge and comfort building or modifying backend endpoints
• Genuine love of 0-to-1 consumer product work, and real curiosity about how products spread user to user
• Independent and scrappy: you get yourself unstuck and make progress inside ambiguity
• Product-driven rather than code-driven, and comfortable throwing away an idea that is not working
• Low ego, high EQ, and a clear communicator across technical and non-technical partners
• Based in Los Angeles or genuinely excited to move there. This team works in office five days a week

Nice to Have

• You watch a lot of TV and film and have spent real time inside online fan communities
• Prior experience at a consumer social company during a 0-to-1 phase

Technical Environment

• Native iOS: Swift and SwiftUI
• Mobile web: React
• Backend: Node.js
• AI coding tooling used heavily day to day

Why This Role Is Worth Your Time

• Scope: second engineer, owning the entire surface a user actually touches
• Influence: the architecture and patterns you set now compound for every engineer who follows
• Backing: seed-funded by a top-tier venture firm plus operators from major streaming and social companies
• Team: engineers and product people who have built 0-to-1 consumer products at some of the best-known social companies, alongside writers and producers from major streaming networks
• Benefits: competitive salary and equity, comprehensive medical, dental and vision, flexible hours and generous time off

This search is managed exclusively by Crucial Recruiting. Company details will be shared with candidates who advance to the interview stage.