Technical Lead (Full-time)
Location: Remote (U.S. preferred)
Type: Full-time/ Fractional Position considered
Compensation: $80,000–$100,000 salary + equity (based on experience and impact)
About Us
Ascended is a narrative-driven RPG fitness platform that transforms real-world effort into in-game progression. We’re building a new category—combining gaming, storytelling, and habit formation into a single experience designed to engage and retain players long-term. We’ve successfully funded our Kickstarter, built early traction, and are preparing for launch.
The Role
We’re looking for a Technical Lead to own and scale Ascended’s core systems. This is not a maintenance role—you will be making critical architectural decisions, leading development, and building the foundation of a product designed to reach thousands (and eventually millions) of users. You’ll work directly with the founders to turn a bold vision into a performant, scalable, and polished product.
What You'll Do
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Own the technical architecture across mobile, backend, and game systems
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Lead development efforts across Swift, React Native, and Unity (C++)
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Build and ship high-quality, performant features across iOS and cross-platform environments
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Design scalable systems for progression, user data, and real-time interactions
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Collaborate closely with product, design, narrative, and fitness teams
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Establish development standards, workflows, and best practices
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Identify technical risks early and proactively solve them
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Optimize performance, stability, and user experience across devices
What We're Looking for
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Strong experience in mobile development (Swift and/or React Native required)
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Experience working with Unity (C++) and game systems integration
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Proven ability to architect and ship complex products from early stage to launch
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Experience scaling systems for real users (performance, reliability, data integrity)
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Strong product sense—you think beyond code and care about the user experience
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Ability to move fast, make decisions, and operate with high ownership
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Comfortable working in a startup environment with evolving requirements
Strongly Preferred
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Experience shipping a successful app or game with $10M+ in revenue
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Background in gaming, gamification, or interactive systems
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Experience with backend systems (e.g., Supabase/Postgres, APIs, real-time systems)
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Familiarity with analytics, tracking, and live ops systems
The Perks
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Direct ownership over core technical decisions
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Flexible, remote work schedule
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Opportunity to shape and scale a new category of product
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Close collaboration with founders and creative leadership
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Equity in a high-growth startup
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A product you can point to and say: “I built that.”
This Role Is Not For You If
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You prefer clearly defined tasks over ownership
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You need heavy structure or long planning cycles before executing
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You’re not comfortable making decisions with incomplete information
How to Apply
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A short note on why this role excites you
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Links to products, apps, or games you’ve worked on
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(Optional but encouraged) A brief breakdown of a system you’ve built and how you’d improve it