Entry-Level Software Engineer, Rust UX/DX
Type: Contract (3-6 months, potential conversion to full-time)
Location: Remote (US preferred)
Compensation: Competitive, commensurate with experience
Start Date: ASAP
We're building a security-focused AI coding agent using Rust and WebAssembly.
The product has a working MVP and we're hiring an engineer to bring the developer experience up to speed.
This is a pre-seed venture backed by experienced enterprise software
operators, and founded by an ex-Google software engineer.
Tasks
You'll own the UX and developer experience of a Rust-based AI coding agent — making a sandboxed tool feel as polished and responsive as the best developer tools available today. This is a terminal-first role working across the CLI, the agent loop, and the runtime, shipping features that developers interact with directly.
This is not a "build from spec" role. You'll have significant autonomy over how features are designed and implemented, working directly with the founder.
Requirements
Required
- Strong Rust experience — you've shipped Rust code to production or have substantial open source Rust projects. Show us your GitHub.
- Terminal UX sensibility — you care about how CLIs feel. You have opinions about input latency, color schemes, and error messages.
- AI-native workflow — you actively use AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) in your daily work and you're genuinely faster because of them. But you're also a strong code reviewer and architect. This is security software — every line matters. We want AI-augmented engineers, not vibe coders.
- Self-directed — you can take a feature from "we need this" to shipped without detailed specs.
Preferred
- WebAssembly experience — Wasmtime, WASI, WIT interfaces, component model
- Experience with ratatui, crossterm, or similar terminal UI frameworks
- Experience with Cap'n Proto or similar RPC/serialization frameworks
- Familiarity with LLM tool-use APIs (Claude, OpenAI, etc.)
- Previous startup experience or comfort with ambiguity
About You
We're targeting someone early in their career with disproportionate output — a recent grad or early-career engineer with a GitHub profile that shows real projects, not just coursework. Previous internships at companies that ship software. The kind of person who builds things on weekends because they want to, not because they have to. You're not a vibe coder, you're an excellent engineer who has adapted to the AI landscape.
You should be excited about:
- Working in Rust full-time
- Building developer tools
- The intersection of security and AI
- Shipping fast in a small team with high autonomy