Staff Product Engineer (Ruby on Rails)

Join to apply for the Staff Product Engineer (Ruby on Rails) role at SearchApi

We are looking for a senior Ruby on Rails engineer to become the technical backbone of our product. You'll own the hardest PRs, raise the bar for the entire codebase, and eventually take technical load off the CEO. This is not a management role. It’s a hands‑on, high‑trust position for someone who can ship production code across every part of the product.

About SearchApi

SearchApi is a real‑time SERP API delivering structured data from 100+ search engines and sources, including Google Search, Google Shopping, Google Jobs, Bing, Baidu, YouTube, Amazon, and many more. We power production workloads for Fortune 500 companies and fast‑moving startups that need reliable search data at scale.

We’re a lean, profitable, bootstrapped team. No VC pressure, no bloat. Just engineers shipping real products to real customers.

Why Join Us?

• Own the product. You’ll work across the entire codebase: billing, API, dashboard, enterprise features, and internal tools.
• High trust, high impact. The CEO/CTO currently reviews the hardest PRs; you’ll take that over.
• Shape the technical direction. Introduce better patterns, raise code quality, build compounding systems.
• Work directly with the CEO/CTO. No layers. Direct collaboration on product and technical decisions.
• Bootstrapped and profitable. We answer to customers, not investors.

Values

• We do everything the Rails Way. If you don’t like DHH’s style, this may not be the place for you.
• We embrace the one‑person framework.
• We hire Managers of One. We trust you to figure it out.
• Remote‑only. Async‑first. Results‑driven.
• Transparency. No politics.

Tech Stack

• Ruby on Rails 8.1
• Ruby 3.4
• Hotwire (Stimulus.JS + Turbo)
• TailwindCSS (TailwindUI components)
• PostgreSQL
• Redis
• Sidekiq
• Stripe
• Terraform + AWS

We use Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, Intercom, GitHub, and Slack daily. We ship multiple times a day with CI/CD.

What You’ll Do

• Own the hardest PRs: complex features, tricky refactors, performance‑critical code.
• Review other engineers’ PRs, raise the bar, and mentor through code review.
• Build enterprise features such as SAML, SCIM, audit logs, and permissions.
• Work on billing and payments (Stripe integrations, subscription logic, usage‑based billing).
• Create and iterate on product features: API playground, dashboard improvements, developer experience.
• Develop in‑house algorithms and custom solutions.
• Debug and optimize performance: memory profiling, CPU profiling, query optimization.
• Work with native gems and low‑level bindings when needed.
• Ship frontend with a good design sense using TailwindUI.
• Maintain security standards and review code with security in mind.
• Stay current with Rails, Ruby, and AI developments, adopting new techniques where beneficial.

About You

• Many years of Ruby on Rails experience; you’ve built and shipped production Rails apps.
• Proven track record with tangible systems you've built.
• Stripe experience is required (billing, subscriptions, webhooks).
• Product thinker who anticipates customer needs.
• Good design sense for clean UI with TailwindCSS.
• Security‑mindful: authentication, authorization, common vulnerabilities.
• Up‑to‑date with Rails releases, Ruby updates, AI developments.
• Compounding mindset: seeks long‑term improvements over quick fixes.
• Comfortable with performance debugging (memory profiling, flame graphs, query analysis).
• Excellent technical writer (PRs, docs, code comments).
• Self‑directed; thrives without daily stand‑ups.
• Fluent in English (written and spoken).
• BSc or higher in Computer Science or equivalent technical field.

Nice to Have

• Terraform experience.
• AWS infrastructure familiarity.
• Experience at scale (billions of requests).
• Open‑source contributions in the Rails ecosystem.

What We Look For

• Depth in Rails and Stripe/payments experience.
• Technical blog posts or open‑source contributions.
• Evidence of product thinking and long tenure at companies.
• Strong individual work on challenging problems.

Hiring Process

• 45‑minute interview call with CEO/CTO.
• Take‑home challenge (realistic Rails problem).
• Technical interview (60 minutes, deep dive).
• Meet the team (30 minutes).
• Reference check + offer.

What You Get

• Fully remote (work from anywhere).
• Equity share.
• Profit sharing.
• Direct collaboration with CEO/CTO.
• Annual team retreats.