Senior Software Development Engineer

Salary: Opportunity to join at an exciting stage of growth

Senior Software Development Engineer

The company:

Our client is a fast-growing established technology start-up building an AI-powered platform used in professional services across New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

They’re on a strong growth trajectory, and as the product and customer base continue to expand rapidly, they’re now establishing a presence in Christchurch.

This role will be the first engineering hire into the new Christchurch office.

They’re product-led, move quickly and give engineers plenty of ownership over what they build and how they build it.

Why this role?

This is a senior full-stack engineering role with a strong backend focus, joining at an important stage of the company’s growth.

You’ll be working on integrations into platforms such as Outlook, Xero and practice management systems, helping take the product deeper into the tools customers use every day.

You’ll own your work from the initial conversations around what should be built, through design and development, and into production. Once it’s live, you’ll stay close to it, looking at reliability, performance and what needs to change as usage grows. There aren’t layers of people prescribing how you solve a problem. You’ll be expected to understand what needs to be achieved, weigh up the options and make good engineering decisions.

What you'll be doing

• Building backend-heavy product features and third-party integrations
• Developing services and APIs that connect the platform with other products
• Working primarily with Node.js, PostgreSQL and AWS, with React on the frontend
• Taking ownership of what you build all the way through to production
• Looking after performance, reliability, and observability once your work is live
• Working closely with Product to shape ideas before development starts
• Tackling complex technical problems and making pragmatic decisions around how to solve them
• Using AI development tooling as part of your everyday workflow
• Improving and evolving systems as the product and customer base continue to grow

What we're looking for

You’ll have 5+ years of commercial software development experience, but what you’ve built and owned is more important than the number of years on your CV.

We’re looking for someone with strong backend development experience who is comfortable working in an environment where you’re trusted to figure things out.

Ideally, you’ll bring:

• Strong backend development experience, ideally with Node.js
• Experience taking software from an idea or design through to a live production environment
• Good experience across APIs, databases and cloud environments
• An understanding of how to build reliable, maintainable software
• The confidence to work through ambiguity and make sound technical decisions
• A genuine sense of ownership over the products and systems you work on
• Experience using AI development tools, or a real interest in working this way
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain the thinking behind your decisions
• Previous start-up or scale-up experience would be preferred, particularly if you’re comfortable with the pace, autonomy and change that comes with a growing product business

The current stack includes Node.js, PostgreSQL, AWS, Terraform, Docker, React, Jest, Datadog and GitHub Actions.

Why you'll want this

There’s a lot happening here. The company is growing, the product is gaining traction internationally and Christchurch is the next step in that growth.

As the first hire into the Christchurch office, giving you the chance to join early and play a part in establishing their local engineering presence as it develops.

You’ll be building integrations that are central to how customers use the product, with real ownership and room to influence technical decisions.

They’re AI-native in the way they develop software. If you’re already using tools like Claude Code, Codex or similar to build and ship faster, you’ll fit well with how this team works.

This is a permanent, hybrid role based in Christchurch.

Please apply via the link with your updated CV or reach out to Amelie Elischer for a confidential chat.

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