Senior Software Engineer (Fullstack)

About Appetise

Appetise is a popular meal planning and smart shopping platform used by over 125,000 Australians and New Zealanders to decide on meals and find the most affordable groceries from major retailers such as Woolworths and Coles. The app remains completely free, enabling us to generate one of the largest food and beverage behavior datasets in the ANZ region, which is provided to more than 80 FMCG brands. We secured a $7 million Series A funding round in early 2026, led by Icehouse Ventures, and were featured on the cover of Forbes. Expansion beyond Australia and New Zealand is underway.

Engineering Team Environment

Our team of approximately 18 members across Christchurch and Sydney includes a focused engineering group of eight. We value a supportive, low-ego culture that emphasizes rapid development and meaningful impact. Our manageable codebase allows your contributions to reach customers quickly, often the same day.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Fullstack Engineer to work on both our B2C Shopper application and the B2B Appetise Intelligence AI product. Responsibilities include end-to-end ownership of features predominantly built with Laravel and Vue 3, with occasional involvement in mobile development using React Native and Expo.

First 90 Days Objectives

• Deliver end-to-end features for Shopper or Appetise Intelligence with minimal supervision.
• Lead at least one feature's roadmap development, from planning through deployment and monitoring.
• Participate in design reviews and Architectural Decision Records (ADRs).
• Collaborate on mobile code touchpoints to broaden team expertise in React Native/Expo.
• Establish trust to independently make architectural decisions within your responsibilities.

Required Expertise

• Strong proficiency in both Laravel and Vue 3 with comprehensive fullstack experience.
• Capability to independently scope and implement solutions involving multiple systems.
• Ownership of features spanning database design, frontend, deployment, and monitoring phases.
• Proven record of consistently shipping significant production features.
• Ability to adopt React Native/Expo development as needed.
• Skilled use of Claude Code (or similar AI tools) for prompt engineering and critical evaluation of AI-generated code.
• Functioning at a senior IC3 engineering level with accountability for quality, delivery, roadmap contribution, risk management, and architectural judgment.
• Comfort with ambiguity and ambiguity-driven development; proactive questioning and initiative in shaping work requirements.
• Valid work authorization in New Zealand.

Preferred Attributes

• Experience designing AI/LLM-based product features beyond AI-assisted coding.
• Confident participation in architectural discussions.
• History of product shipping in small, collaborative teams with blurred role distinctions between engineer and product engineer.
• Familiarity with event-driven systems or data-focused backend architectures.
• Experience with multi-tenant SaaS platforms spanning B2B and B2C functions.
• More extensive mobile development background.

Candidate Profile

• An attentive listener who gains trust through understanding context rather than imposing prior methods.
• A collaborative team player thriving in small teams prioritizing cooperation over solo work.
• Clear and warm communicator proficient in asynchronous communication and considerate organization of meetings.
• Respectful of colleagues' time and focus, maintaining efficiency in interactions.
• Motivated by mission and steady ambition rather than status.
• Combines strategic vision with operational effectiveness, balancing detailed work with system-level thinking.

Workplace and Benefits

• Annual salary range between 120,000 and 160,000 NZD, aligned with experience.
• Hybrid working model centered on Christchurch office with essential in-office days on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
• Access to relevant learning and development with full support for desired growth areas.
• Regular team perks including Monday lunch, Treat Tuesdays, and quarterly onsite team gatherings.

Recruitment Process

• Initial discussion with a technical team lead.
• Face-to-face interview with senior engineering personnel.
• Paid full-day onsite working session in Christchurch solving real technical challenges.
• Final conversation with the company CEO.

Additional Information

Appetise promotes equal opportunity employment and encourages applications from diverse backgrounds, identities, and experience levels. Reasonable accommodations during recruitment are available upon request.