Product engineer for hire
A product engineer owns the whole arc — not just the code. I research the problem, make the product calls, design the UX and the UI, build the design system, engineer the React/Next.js frontend, write the full-stack backend, deploy it, wire the analytics, and iterate on what the data shows. One person, one accountable line from idea to production. Founders hire me when they'd otherwise have to coordinate a designer, a frontend dev, and a backend dev across three invoices and three handoffs.
- Product discovery: problem framing, scoping, what to build and what to cut
- UX strategy: user flows, information architecture, journey mapping
- UI design and design systems in Figma, built for developer handoff
- Frontend engineering: React, Next.js App Router, TypeScript end-to-end
- Full-stack execution: Node, Express, MongoDB, Supabase, REST APIs, auth
- AI-native product layers: copilots, RAG, voice agents, eval loops
- Deployment, observability, Core Web Vitals, and WCAG accessibility
- Analytics and iteration: ship, measure, refine — not ship and walk away
Shipped work for the same brief.
- 2025CVLeap AI — Production SaaS in 8 weeksFull product arc solo: onboarding UX, AI resume editor, Supabase auth, OpenAI integration, billing, and PDF export — research and UX through deployed backend.Next.jsTypeScriptSupabaseOpenAI
- 2023NextDoor — UX redesign + design systemLocal-news app redesigned around trust signals; information architecture cut from four navigation levels to two, with a handoff-ready design system.FigmaUXDesign SystemIA
- 2026Phone Assistant — AI voice agent (in flight)AI voice agent for L1 support on OpenAI Realtime + Twilio: product scoping, latency-tuned architecture, ops dashboard, and human handoff — built end to end.Next.jsOpenAI RealtimeTwilioPostgres
Why founders hire a product engineer instead of a developer.
A developer takes a spec and writes the code. A product engineer questions the spec first. The difference shows up in what gets built: a developer ships the feature you asked for; a product engineer ships the outcome you actually need, having pushed back on the parts that wouldn't have worked. For an early-stage team with no product owner to spare, that judgment is the whole point.
The design-to-production workflow
Every build runs the same arc: research → product thinking → UX strategy → UI design → design systems → frontend engineering → full-stack development → deployment → analytics → iteration. The value isn't any single stage — it's that one person carries context across all of them. No interpretation gap between the Figma file and the React component, because the same person drew both. No backend that ignores the UX, because the same person owns both.
Product thinking
Before a line of code: who is this for, what job are they hiring the product to do, and what is the smallest thing that proves it works? I scope to the riskiest assumption first, not the easiest screen. That's how an MVP stays an MVP instead of quietly becoming a twelve-week build.
UX and design systems, then engineering
UX strategy and information architecture come before visual design; the design system comes before the components. By the time React gets written, the tokens, the variants, and the interaction states are already decided — so the frontend is implementation, not guesswork. See the UX engineering and design systems pages for how each stage works.
Full-stack execution and AI-native layers
The strong layer is frontend — React, Next.js, TypeScript — but the stack runs all the way down: Node, Express, MongoDB, Supabase, REST APIs, auth, deployment. When the product's surface is AI (copilots, RAG, voice agents), that's built in production, not learned on your budget.
One engineer, one invoice, one point of accountability — from the first research note to the deployed, measured, iterated product.
What founders ask before reaching out.
What is a product engineer?
A product engineer is an engineer who owns product outcomes, not just code. The role spans research, UX and product decisions, UI and design systems, frontend and full-stack engineering, deployment, and iteration. Unlike a developer who implements a fixed spec, a product engineer helps decide what to build and why, then ships it end to end.
Why hire a product engineer instead of a designer plus a developer?
Fewer handoffs and no interpretation gap. With a separate designer and frontend and backend dev, you coordinate three people, three invoices, and the loss of context between each. A product engineer carries one continuous thread from research to deployed product — faster decisions and a codebase that actually matches the design intent.
How is a product engineer different from a frontend engineer?
A frontend engineer owns the client layer. A product engineer owns the client layer plus the product decisions around it — UX strategy, information architecture, the backend the frontend talks to, and the analytics that tell you whether it worked. Frontend engineering is one stage of the product engineer's arc.
Do you work with non-technical founders?
Yes — that's most of my work. I scope in plain language, demo the working product weekly, and push daily PRs so you watch it being built instead of waiting on status updates. You make product calls; I handle the technical ones and explain them in a sentence.
What size projects do you take on?
From a one-week focused sprint (a landing page, a Figma-to-React conversion, a performance rescue) to a full greenfield SaaS over 4–10 weeks, to an AI-native product over 6–12 weeks. I take one engagement at a time so it gets full ownership.
What does the engagement look like?
A free 30-minute fit call, a written scope doc within 48 hours (problem, solution, stack, timeline, price), then daily PRs in your repo and weekly walkthroughs. You own the code from day one. No agency markup, no lock-in.
Let's see if it's a fit.
30-minute call. No pitch, no slides. Tell me what you're building, including the AI parts, and the constraints. I'll tell you if I can help, and who else to call if I can't.