Permanent software engineering recruiting for startups and growing teams. Work directly with Cheri Kruger to define the role, clarify the scope, and find the right person.
Let's talk
A personal search.
A clearer brief.
A better fit.
Kruger Recruiting helps startups and growing companies hire permanent software engineers, including founding engineers, product and full-stack engineers, backend and platform engineers, and technical leaders. Cheri manages role definition, candidate sourcing, interview coordination, and offer discussions across the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
Start with the decisions and outcomes the role needs to own. Choose a title after you understand the work.
Helps an early company turn a product direction into working software. The role may include architecture and product choices, alongside hands-on engineering.
Define the first product milestone, decision authority, and founder support.
Builds user-facing features across the application. The balance of frontend, backend, and customer work depends on the product and team.
Name the user problem, product area, and relevant technical depth.
Owns services, integrations, data flows, or internal systems that the product and engineering team rely on.
Explain the system boundary, reliability needs, and team dependencies.
Sets technical direction or leads a team as responsibilities and decision-making grow. Be clear about how much of the work is hands-on.
Describe the decisions, people leadership, and delivery expectations.
A founding engineer may help set product direction while writing the first production code. A specialist engineer usually brings depth to a defined part of an existing product or team.
Early engineers need a concrete starting problem and a founder who can make product decisions with them. Avoid describing the role as "own everything."
What can this person own in the first six months?
When the product and team are established, focus the role on a clear area of responsibility and how it connects to the work around it.
Which problem should the next engineer take off the team's plate?
Capture the essentials in three short steps. Download your notes before leaving.
Describe an outcome, rather than a list of tools.
Cheri Kruger is the founder of Kruger Recruiting. She works directly with founders and hiring teams throughout the search, from role definition and candidate sourcing to interviews and offers.
Let’s talk About Cheri and Kruger Recruiting ↗A founding engineer is an early, permanent member of a startup's technical team. The role often combines product decisions with hands-on engineering. Define the first outcomes, decision authority, and support before hiring, because the title means different things at different companies.
