Founding Technical Leader, Social Health Startup

4 days ago

San Francisco, California, United States Novara Full time

About Novara

Novara is a social health app helping people connect through real-world activities, starting with runners in San Francisco. We are designing a trusted way to meet people nearby through shared interests and routines, combining social connection, wellness, and safety into one experience.

Our long-term vision is to build the infrastructure for social health, helping people strengthen friendships, expand communities, and reduce the friction of getting together offline.

The Role

We are looking for a
Founding Technical Leader
who is excited to shape Novara from the ground up, technically, strategically, and culturally. You will be the first engineering lead on the team and will play a key role in defining the product architecture, roadmap, and early user experience.

This is a
part-time, equity-only
founding role during our early build phase. It is ideal for someone who wants to be part of an early founding journey while maintaining flexibility, with the potential to transition into full-time and a leadership position (Head of Engineering or CTO) as we grow and raise funding.

What You'll Do

  • Partner with the founder to design and implement early beta versions and the product roadmap
  • Make foundational architecture decisions and define our technical stack across mobile, backend, and AI systems
  • Lead the development of a recommendation and scheduling engine that uses user data such as preferences, availability, and context to create seamless matches
  • Integrate GenAI and multimodal understanding (voice, text, and behavioral data) to automate and personalize user interactions
  • Build and iterate quickly using AI-assisted or low-code tools
  • Collaborate with the founder and early contributors on product strategy, user research, and investor materials
  • Shape the engineering culture, lead the early technical team, and plan for long-term scalability

You Might Be a Great Fit If You (technical)

  • Have experience building consumer or social apps, especially mobile or marketplace-style products
  • Bring a full-stack or mobile engineering background
  • Have worked with early-stage startups and enjoy designing 0→1 systems, MVP architecture, data pipelines, and experimentation frameworks
  • Have experience building or integrating AI agents, recommendation systems, or personalization features

You Might Be a Great Fit If You (personal)

  • Are motivated by building products that improve real-world connection and well-being
  • Are curious about social behavior, personalization, and the intersection of AI and human connection
  • Are comfortable being hands-on and resourceful in the early stages of product development
  • Want to help define the technical foundation and be part of a mission-driven founding team
  • Value collaboration, empathy, and inclusivity in both product design and team culture

What's in It for You

  • Founding-level equity
  • Flexibility to contribute part-time while we validate and prepare for our angel funding round
  • Meaningful ownership of product and technical direction
  • Opportunity to grow into a long-term leadership role (Head of Engineering or CTO)
  • A chance to build technology that helps people form real connections again
  • Hybrid / remote flexibility, based in San Francisco preferred.

How to Apply

Please apply directly through the LinkedIn job post for this role.

If you would like to add extra context or have questions, you can email with a short note about what excites you about Novara and any relevant
experience or projects.

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