Software Engineer (Node.js/React)

Panenco is a boutique software studio in Belgium and Ukraine. We build next-gen B2B SaaS products and enterprise AI solutions, always with an entrepreneurial spirit. We're a small team of the best and brightest, looking for 10x people who love to tackle challenging problems. We give you significant ownership and room to grow, expecting you to take charge and continuously evolve with the latest and greatest in our industry.

About the position
We’re looking for software engineers with strong computer science fundamentals and an entrepreneurial edge to build robust products end-to-end on our Node.js and React stack. You’ll work across the full stack – from database schema to UI – joining a dedicated product team alongside some of the best and brightest people in our industry. The balance between front-end and back-end work flexes depending on the project, and we expect you to be comfortable owning features from idea to production.

Technologies and required skills
We expect engineers in our team to take on a broad set of responsibilities, always acting in the interest of the product rather than sticking to the boundaries of any specific domain. You have an in-depth grasp of the majority of the following technologies:
Core Language & RuntimeTypeScript: strong typing, generics, modern ES standards
Node.js: event loop, async patterns, streams, modules, runtime fundamentals
Strong computer science fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, system design

Back-EndNestJS: modular architecture, dependency injection, decorators, guards, interceptors, pipes
REST API design: resource modeling, versioning, error handling, idempotency
Authentication & authorization: JWT, OAuth/OIDC, session management, RBAC patterns

Database & Data LayerPostgreSQL: schema design, indexing, query optimization, transactions
ORMs: hands-on experience with Drizzle ORM and/or Prisma
Data modelling: turning business logic into comprehensible data structures
Migrations, schema evolution, data integrity

Front-EndReact: function components, hooks, composition patterns, controlled vs derived state, React Server Components (RSC)
Typescript: strong typing, generics, modern ES standards
Next.js: App Router, Server Components, Server Actions, routing concepts, SSR/SSG patterns

UI & StylingDesign systems and component libraries: shadcn/ui (primary), Radix UI, MUI, Ant, Atlassian UI
Styling: modern CSS with Tailwind CSS, CSS Modules, SCSS
Responsive layouts and cross-browser compatibility

Forms & ValidationReact Hook Form: form state management and validation
Zod: schema validation and type inference

Testing & QualityE2E testing: Playwright or Cypress
Understanding of test pyramid: unit, integration, and E2E testing strategies
CI integration: test automation in continuous integration pipelines
Code quality: focus on readability, maintainability, and reusability

Build Tools & Module BundlersVite (widely used across our projects)
Webpack
Next.js build system: experience with Next.js build and development tooling
Module bundling concepts: understanding of modern bundling approaches

Error Tracking & ObservabilitySentry or similar tools for frontend error tracking and monitoring
Ability to interpret production errors and improve system reliability

Security FundamentalsFrontend security: XSS, CSRF, secure handling of authentication tokens
Backend security: input validation, SQL injection prevention, secrets handling, rate limiting
OWASP Top 10
Permissions and authorization patterns

Web & Browser FundamentalsHTTP/HTTPS, caching, cookies, CORS
Event Loop, microtasks vs macrotasks, Web APIs
Performance: client-side and server-side performance considerations
Accessibility: WCAG awareness, keyboard navigation, screen readers, semantic HTML

AI-Assisted DevelopmentHands-on experience using AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or similar) in daily development workflow
Ability to write effective prompts, review AI-generated code critically, and integrate AI tools into your engineering process without compromising code quality
Judgment about when AI output needs verification — recognizing hallucinations, context limits, and over-reliance risks

Language skills: solid reading and speaking skills in English

As a plus
tRPC: end-to-end type-safe APIs, procedures, routers, middleware
Turbopack: familiarity with Next.js Turbopack for faster development builds
Virtualisation: hands-on experience with Docker and similar services
Cloud: practical experience with GCP, AWS or Azure (serverless principles a bonus)
CI/CD pipelines: setting up and managing deployment pipelines
Message queues / background jobs: BullMQ, Redis, or similar
Information security: an understanding of security standards (SOC 2, ISO 27001)
React Native: experience with React Native for mobile development
Basic understanding of working with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic): request/response patterns, streaming, token usage, cost awareness
Model Context Protocol (MCP): practical experience configuring MCP servers in tools like Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor (e.g. filesystem, GitHub, Slack, or custom servers)
Building AI-powered product features: experience integrating LLMs into user-facing products (chat interfaces, RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, streaming UIs)
Prompt engineering: structured approaches to system prompts, few-shot examples, tool use / function calling, evals

Locations
Remote work is our default.
We also have an office in Kyiv, and team members are expected to be available to work onsite there when needed.

We offer
We offer a friendly, dynamic and inspirational working environment with a strong team that celebrates great engineering. During our bi-weekly software engineering labs sessions we share experiences from the various products that we're building. A fair compensation, office snacks and fun afterwork drinks are included of course!

The interview process
The interview process is short (but thorough) and will consist of 3 steps:
Technical interview: you present a personal project or one of your prior involvements from end to end, with our team asking targeted questions
Pair-Programming Session: you collaborate with one of our engineers on a practical task. We focus on problem-solving approach, communication, code structure, and how you reason about changes in real time.
Feedback: you will receive feedback about the technical conversation either in written form or through a call