Technical Lead, Gotham Oracle

Product Team

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Technical Lead - Gotham Oracle

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About Gotham Oracle

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Gotham Oracle helps New Yorkers and tourists find things to do in the city: restaurant and bar deals, new places to eat, sporting events in public parks, museums, and more. It does this through its iOS Native application and soon through its website which acts as a P2P and connected blog across New York City.

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The Role
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You will own Gotham Oracle's technology end to end. On mobile, that means leading the architecture, quality, and release process of our iOS app. On the backend, that means owning the business logic API that powers it. Entering 2027 this will also necessitate merging Native app and engine to help power the (already designed and published) Website positioned as a what-to-do around NYC blog. Said blog has associated G.O. Affiliates (GAs) whose content needs to deeplinks to and through the Native application.

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Compensation

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We're looking for someone who is in an appropriate position to see the value of a "seed-strapped" early stage startup ahead of its city-wide MVP launch. By this we mean that all current members have day jobs and are unpaid. We've raised angel funds at an evaluation of $2.5MM, and this role will receive between 4-8% equity to-be-determined through the interview process (1-2 months).

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So don't interview if you're not ambitious and can support yourself for the next 10 months.

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Mobile Stack

Framework: React Native + Expo (Expo Router, EAS Build, EAS Submit)
Language: TypeScript, React
Data & State: TanStack Query, Zustand, Axios, Zod
Integrations: Auth0, Stripe, OneSignal, Mixpanel, Sentry

Backend Stack

Runtime & Framework: Node.js + Express
Database: MongoDB with Mongoose
Integrations: Stripe Checkout, Auth0, Cloudinary, Sentry

Infrastructure

Hosting: DigitalOcean, App Store
Database: MongoDB Atlas
Authentication: Auth0

Responsibilities

Mobile

Own the mobile architecture and keep the codebase clean, typed, and maintainable
Build iOS features from idea to the App Store
Manage release pipelines

Backend

Own the business logic API and its MongoDB data model
Keep the API secure and payments reliable
Monitor the API in production with Sentry
Build out testing and deployment for the API

Leadership

Set engineering standards and review code
Work with founders on product direction and the technical roadmap

Requirements

Mobile

Experience with React Native and Expo, including shipping production apps to the App Store
TypeScript and React experience (hooks, component design, performance)
Experience with server-state and client-state management (e.g., React Query, Zustand)
Familiarity with native modules, permissions, deep linking, and the build/release pipeline

Backend

Node.js and Express experience building and running production REST APIs
MongoDB and Mongoose experience, including schema design
Production Stripe experience, including Checkout and webhooks
Experience with Auth0 or similar identity providers, including user management
Experience integrating third-party services (Cloudinary, transactional email) and internal microservices
Experience with observability (Sentry, logging) and API testing (Jest, Supertest)

General

Technical leadership experience, including making architecture decisions
Comfortable working at an early-stage startup

Nice to Have

Experience with consumer, local discovery, or marketplace apps
Experience building two-sided products where businesses submit offers and consumers buy and redeem them
Experience with promo, rewards, or referral systems
Experience with affiliate marketing engines
Experience with recommendation systems
Experience migrating a JavaScript backend to TypeScript
Product analytics and experimentation experience
Deep knowledge of New York City

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