I recently discovered a new job title: “Founding Engineer”.

A Founding Engineer builds the MVP / Alpha, sets early technical constraints, and drives the initial engineering culture. Operating in high-ambiguity environments, they often handle product management and customer support in addition to coding.

Typical responsibilities include turning pitch decks and founder ideas into functional, usable products; transitioning between backend and frontend tasks while shaping the product roadmap; gathering early customer feedback; and establishing a codebase and developer workflows for future engineers to inherit.

I love this.

It's specific, which is great, when “CTO” gets applied to many different roles. And ... it describes a role I genuinely enjoy and thrive in. I'm thrilled that it has a name.