Torchora
Back to Home

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Full Stack Product Engineer

💰 $120,000 - $190,000

Software EngineeringProductFull Stack DevelopmentTechnology

🎯 Role Definition

As a Full Stack Product Engineer, you are more than a coder; you are a product owner and a customer advocate. This role is for engineers who thrive on seeing their work directly impact users. You will operate at the intersection of product, design, and engineering, taking full ownership of features from the initial idea to deployment and beyond. You will be responsible for the entire software development lifecycle, building scalable and robust solutions for both the front-end and back-end, and influencing the product roadmap with your technical insights and user empathy.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Full Stack Developer
  • Software Engineer (Frontend or Backend specialist looking to broaden scope)
  • Senior Software Engineer

Advancement To:

  • Senior or Staff Product Engineer
  • Engineering Manager
  • Principal Engineer or Architect

Lateral Moves:

  • Technical Product Manager
  • Solutions Architect
  • DevOps or SRE Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, develop, and deploy robust, scalable, and user-centric features from concept to production, taking full ownership of the end-to-end development lifecycle.
  • Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to define feature requirements, user stories, and technical specifications, ensuring alignment with business goals.
  • Build and maintain clean, efficient, and well-documented code for both front-end and back-end systems using modern frameworks like React, Node.js, and Python.
  • Architect and implement performant and scalable data models and database schemas to support complex application logic and future growth.
  • Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines to automate testing, building, and deployment processes, enabling high-quality and frequent releases to production.
  • Engage in the full product development lifecycle, participating in ideation, discovery, and strategic planning to influence the product roadmap and technical vision.
  • Monitor application performance, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimizations across the stack to enhance user experience and system reliability.
  • Write comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end tests to ensure code quality, reliability, and prevent regressions in a continuous delivery environment.
  • Actively participate in code reviews, providing and receiving constructive feedback to peers to maintain high standards of code quality and foster team knowledge sharing.
  • Instrument, analyze, and interpret user behavior data and A/B test results to inform product decisions and iterate on features for maximum user impact.
  • Own and manage the cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) for your features, utilizing infrastructure-as-code principles where applicable.
  • Troubleshoot and debug complex issues across the entire stack, from the browser to the database, providing timely and effective resolutions to production incidents.
  • Champion engineering best practices, including design patterns, security principles, and agile methodologies, to elevate the team's technical excellence.
  • Mentor junior engineers, fostering their technical and professional growth through guidance, pair programming, and the sharing of best practices.
  • Drive technical discovery and prototyping for new, ambiguous product ideas to de-risk implementation and validate technical feasibility early in the process.
  • Contribute to significant architectural decisions and help shape the long-term technical strategy for the product and platform.
  • Communicate technical concepts, trade-offs, and project status effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences, ensuring clear alignment and expectations.
  • Develop and maintain internal tools, services, and documentation that improve developer productivity and operational efficiency.
  • Ensure the security, privacy, and compliance of the application by implementing and adhering to industry best practices and standards.
  • Translate complex user problems and ambiguous requirements into elegant, practical, and scalable technical solutions that delight our customers.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to uncover product insights.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Participate in on-call rotations to ensure the stability and availability of our production systems.
  • Create and maintain clear technical documentation for APIs, system architecture, and internal processes.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Frontend Development: High proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript and modern frameworks like React, Vue, or Svelte.
  • Backend Development: Strong experience with server-side languages such as Node.js, Python (Django/Flask), Go, or Ruby on Rails.
  • Database Management: Expertise in both SQL (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (e.g., MongoDB, DynamoDB, Redis) databases.
  • Cloud & DevOps: Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins).
  • API Design: Deep understanding of designing, building, and consuming RESTful and/or GraphQL APIs.
  • Software Architecture: Solid knowledge of system design principles, microservices architecture, and event-driven patterns.
  • Testing Frameworks: Experience with automated testing tools for both frontend (e.g., Jest, Cypress) and backend (e.g., Pytest, Mocha).
  • Version Control: Mastery of Git and collaborative workflows (e.g., GitFlow, trunk-based development).
  • Web Fundamentals: Strong grasp of HTML5, CSS3, browser APIs, and core web performance concepts.
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Familiarity with tools like Terraform or AWS CDK for managing cloud resources.

Soft Skills

  • Product Mindset: A deep sense of user empathy and a passion for building products that solve real-world problems.
  • Ownership & Accountability: A proactive, self-starting attitude with a strong sense of responsibility for the end-to-end product.
  • Communication & Collaboration: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to work effectively in a cross-functional team.
  • Problem-Solving: Strong analytical and critical thinking skills to tackle complex and ambiguous challenges.
  • Adaptability: Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, iterative environment and learn new technologies quickly.
  • Business Acumen: An understanding of how technical decisions impact business outcomes and product success.
  • Mentorship: A willingness to guide and support fellow engineers.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or equivalent practical experience in software development.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Systems

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3-7+ years of professional software development experience.

Preferred:
Experience shipping user-facing products from start to finish in a fast-paced, agile environment is highly preferred. A portfolio or active GitHub profile showcasing relevant projects is a strong plus.

Explore More Careers