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8VC

Software Engineer - MeritFirst

Austin, TXfulltimemidAdded today

About this role

MeritFirst is seeking a Software Engineer in Austin to build a talent assessment platform that evaluates job candidates based on demonstrated ability rather than credentials. You'll own full-stack product problems—from candidate experiences and assessment engines to employer workflows and evaluation systems—working directly with founders and users to ship features, observe real-world behavior, and iterate quickly.

What you'll do

  • Build candidate-facing and employer-facing experiences for demonstrating and evaluating ability
  • Develop a flexible assessment platform with primitives for creating, delivering, and evaluating job-related challenges
  • Own problems end-to-end from user research through system design, implementation, deployment, and iteration
  • Transform manual human workflows into reliable, auditable software systems
  • Design evaluation systems that are consistent, interpretable, and resistant to gaming
  • Collaborate with assessment experts, operators, and users to balance automation with human judgment

What they're looking for

  • Full-stack software engineering and system design
  • Product thinking and problem decomposition
  • Backend and frontend development
  • Database and infrastructure design
  • Testing and quality assurance practices
  • Working with ambiguous requirements and shipping iteratively
  • AI/ML integration with emphasis on explainability and trust
  • Collaborative problem-solving with non-technical stakeholders
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8VC

8VC backs companies building AI-powered enterprise software, including Thorin, which creates autonomous agents that proactively manage workflows across business platforms like Slack and email, and MeritFirst, which develops merit-based talent assessment tools. The firm is hiring Product Engineers, full-stack AI Engineers, and Software Engineers for seed-stage startups where early hires own features end-to-end and work closely with founding teams.

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Likely interview questions

  • Tell us about a time you owned an ambiguous product problem end-to-end, from research to shipping and learning from real users.
  • How would you approach designing an assessment system that candidates and employers both trust to fairly and accurately predict job performance?
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