Founding React Native Engineer (Full-Stack)
2 days ago
City of London
Affinity Labs: Founding React Native Engineer (Full-Stack) Location: London Area, United Kingdom · On-site Company Description At Affinity Labs, we’re building the future of company creation, a full-stack AI venture studio that partners with content creators to co-found authentic, scalable software businesses. By combining AI-native development with creator-led distribution, we're pioneering a new model of monetisation by to rapidly build, launch, and scale digital ventures aligned with creators and their audiences. We aim to launch ventures 10x faster and cheaper than traditional methods using our internal "AI factory": a multi-agent architecture, reusable component libraries, and a growing knowledge graph that learns from every product we ship. Why Affinity Labs: Ship at rapid pace with AI-accelerated workflows, see your work distributed to thousands of users at launch, and compound impact across multiple products, not just one. Role Description You’ll lead end-to-end product development for mobile-first apps: scoping, building, testing, shipping, and iterating across tight cycles. This is an early-stage, hands-on role with significant autonomy and responsibility to drive product development cycles, collaborating closely with founders, creators, and design to turn lean specs into live products. Responsibilities • Implement features end-to-end (React Native → APIs → data) and maintain quality while moving fast., • Run tight build, test, iterate, ship loops; provide realistic estimates and surface blockers early., • Manage tech debt pragmatically; record key decisions as lightweight ADRs/notes in the tooling., • Participate in daily standups and weekly planning, contribute to technical strategy & execute from Linear tickets., • Contribute to architecture and product discussions; be heard in debate, align to unified decisions., • Own operability: set up and maintain CI/CD, monitoring/alerting, performance & error budgets, and safe rollback paths., • Build and integrate AI features (LLM/agent workflows, RAG/vector DB integration, eval hooks, cost/safety guardrails). Essential Requirements • 3–6+ years building production mobile apps (React Native), with shipped apps., • Strong React Native proficiency (Expo experience strongly preferred)., • Full-stack capability: backend in Python (FastAPI) and databases; API design; basic cloud infra familiarity., • Startup mindset: high ownership, pace, ambiguity; willing to burn the midnight oil when needed., • Growth mindset & flexibility: open to feedback; not rigid about stack/tools., • Clear communicator & collaborator; lean on your experience to guide product decisions, • Evidence of shipping quickly in small teams (portfolio/GitHub/TestFlight links). Desired • Working deeply with Expo (EAS builds, OTA updates)., • CI/CD for mobile, App Store/TestFlight flows., • Analytics, feature flagging, experimentation frameworks., • Planning & execution in Linear (or similar). Tools & Stack • Frontend (mobile): React Native (Expo)., • Frontend (web, when needed): React/Next.js (for dashboards/admins, used selectively)., • Backend/Runtime: Node.js, Python (FastAPI)., • Datastores: PostgreSQL, MongoDB (as appropriate), Redis (caching/sessions)., • Vectors/Embeddings: Chroma (or similar)., • AI Models & APIs: Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google); Amazon Nova Canvas (vision), Deepgram (audio)., • AI Dev Tools: LangChain or CrewAI (orchestration), MCP servers (integration), GitHub Copilot / Claude Code., • Infrastructure: AWS (serverless functions), Docker (primarily for custom MCPs). Competencies & Behaviours • Communicates clearly with technical and non-technical teammates., • Takes ownership from concept to deploy and through maintenance., • Balances technical excellence with pragmatic delivery to meet business needs., • Adapts quickly to changing requirements and emerging tech; applies AI learnings., • Sets clear goals, tracks progress, and hits commitments; collaborates across disciplines. Why this role is a career launchpad • Own the code & the company. You step in as a Founding Engineer with a meaningful equity stake from day one., • Ship faster with AI at your side. Our workflow bakes in AI so you spend your time solving real problems—not boilerplate., • Ride a rocket. Affinity Labs is a venture studio that partners with top content creators to turn influence into scalable software. Our wider vision is big and the bar is high, we need driven people who can help us achieve an ambitious roadmap., • Grow like crazy. You’ll architect, build, and launch multiple products each year. The shipping reps you’ll get in 12 months here would take 3–4 years in a typical startup. There’s a lot of work, it’s high intensity, and the expectation is to ship extremely quickly., • Learn from builders, not bosses. Work shoulder-to-shoulder with a team that has scaled VC-backed startups, closed multi-million-pound term sheets, and collaborated with 1,000+ creators across formats and categories.