What are the responsibilities and job description for the Product Development Engineer position at Paladin Technologies?
ABOUT THE PROJECT
We are an early-stage social app built around how people actually experience their city. We're mobile-first, moving fast, and already in active beta. Founded by a small team of UC Berkeley grads in the Bay Area, we're looking for builders who care deeply about craft, speed, and creating meaningful user experiences.
THE ROLE
This is not a ticket-taking role. We're looking for someone who thinks in both code and product, someone who has opinions about why features should exist before they think about how to build them. You'll work on the React Native frontend, own features from concept to ship, and be a real voice in what Destin becomes. If you've ever used an app and thought you could have made it better, this is where you prove it.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
• Build and iterate on features across the Destin app: location discovery, social feeds, reviews, reactions, maps, and more
• Work with the founding team to define what gets built, write specs, validate ideas, and push back when something isn't right
• Implement screens and components in React Native that match our design language, a dark and refined aesthetic built around warmth and specificity
• Integrate with external APIs and data layers to power the location and social features of the product
• Maintain visual and interaction consistency across the app using our shared design system
• Participate in beta cycles, gather real feedback, and turn it into concrete improvements
• Own the quality of what you ship. Every interaction, every edge case.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
• Experience building mobile or web UIs with React Native, React, or something comparable
• A genuine eye for design and interaction quality. You notice when something feels off and you know how to fix it.
• Solid with TypeScript and modern frontend patterns including hooks, state management, and data fetching
• Some experience working with external APIs and data layers
• You have real opinions about product. You've thought about why features exist, not just how to implement them.
• Comfortable moving fast in ambiguous, early-stage environments
• Bonus: experience with mapping SDKs, location-based product features, or social app patterns
WHY JOIN US
• You're joining at the very beginning. The decisions you make now will shape the product for a long time.
• High ownership from day one. No tickets handed down from above, no legacy code to maintain.
• You'll work directly with the founding team and have a real voice in what gets built and how.
• Fast feedback loops. We're in active beta with real users, so what you ship gets tested immediately.
• A product that's genuinely worth building. We're not optimizing engagement metrics, we're helping people find the places and moments that make a city worth living in.
WHO WE'RE BUILDING WITH
We're looking for people who care about craft and move fast without cutting corners. People who are excited by the problem, not just the resume line. If you've ever looked at an app and thought you could have built it better, or looked at your city and felt like you were missing something, you'll fit in here.
TO APPLY
Send your resume and a short note about yourself (what you've built, what you're excited about, and why us) to info@paladintechnologies.org