- SkillsRobin Dev Spotlight
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- Dev Talent Spotlight | January '26
Dev Talent Spotlight | January '26
+ what founders often get wrong about "inclusive hiring"
Lisa Deng
January 13, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
🌟 Featured Developer
⏳ 5–7 years experience
🏠 Sydney (open to relocating), Fully remote
💻 TypeScript, Python, SQL, React, Next.js, Node.js
💵 $150k p/a
✅ Open to working for equity
“I’ve built my own startup from the ground up, which taught me how to ship fast, not overbuild, and focus on what actually moves the business forward.”
A founder-minded engineer who has taken products from idea to production, not just worked on features in isolation. Brings a rare combination of product judgement and technical execution, with a strong bias toward shipping quickly, avoiding over-engineering, and focusing on the work that actually moves a business forward. Especially well suited to early-stage teams that need someone who can own problems end-to-end, not just tickets.
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How to build an inclusive team: Emma from Project F 🚀
“If startups start with equitable parental leave, inclusive hiring practices, and clear policies from day one, they won’t face the challenges later. It sets the foundation for a diverse, resilient, high-performing team.”
Talent thrives when everyone belongs
Building inclusive teams isn’t just good culture, it’s a competitive advantage. In this interview, Emma from Project F shares what actually works when building gender-inclusive tech teams from day one, and why diversity, structure, and intention lead to stronger products and better companies.
In this candid piece, Emma covers:
What founders often get wrong about “inclusive hiring”
How early-stage teams can design inclusion into their culture from the start
Why diverse teams outperform not just morally, but commercially
🔥 This one’s worth your time
A 60-second look with Lisa from SkillsRobin at how the company got started, the thinking behind the platform, and what it took to turn the idea into something real. A quick, thoughtful snapshot of the journey behind SkillsRobin.
🗓️ Other Notable Profiles
⏳7+ years experience | A data scientist who turns vague ideas into MVPs and practical AI products, with deep experience building end-to-end analytics systems and production pipelines. Notably transitioned a non-technical team into a data-savvy unit capable of self-serve analytics and used AI to unblock core product challenges, a rare blend of technical depth, product delivery, and impact orientation. |
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⏳1–2 years experience | A software engineer with a rare combination of QA expertise and hands-on frontend development, proven to deliver business impact at scale. Notably, they made targeted UI improvements that are estimated to have boosted conversions by around $40 million per year, a level of influence unusual for early-career engineers. They thrive in product-focused teams where quality, clarity, and ownership matter. |
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⏳ 1–2 years experience |
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⏳ 2–5 years experience | A hands-on AI product leader who led the Luna Tax Copilot to 3rd place in a national AI competition and helped build Australia’s first AI Tax Copilot. Brings rare founder-level judgement, technical leadership, and the ability to take AI products from idea to real-world deployment. |
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Can you scale without chaos?
It's peak season, so volume's about to spike. Most teams either hire temps (expensive) or burn out their people (worse). See what smarter teams do: let AI handle predictable volume so your humans stay great.
Current Job Opportunities
Permanent, Full-time Roles
📍 Remote | Post-revenue AI company, building a platform that helps organisations test ideas quickly and understand audiences at scale. Ship features across Ruby on Rails backend and React frontend, improve stability, and shape core technical decisions. Looking for a hands-on builder comfortable with early-stage pace who's interested in applied AI and decision-making. |
Founding Engineer – AI Healthcare Automation Startup
📍 Sydney (Hybrid or In-office) | Be a part of seed-funded AI startup reimagining healthcare communication through voice and messaging automation. As a founding engineer, you’ll shape the product, technical direction, and culture from day one. Build intelligent systems that automate calls, bookings, referrals, and patient engagement across 30+ languages. |
Looking to hire?Post your role with SkillsRobin to receive personalised referrals from our network of trusted tech professionals. | Looking for a dev job or side-hustle?Create a profile on SkillsRobin and get invitations to connect from startup founders and hiring managers. |
Freelance Roles
Technical Lead – Fitness & wellness events marketplace
📍 Melbourne, Remote | Solo founder who recently exited their legal career to focus on building a platform for movement based communities. With a background in lead generation and sales they’re looking for a person to lead to technical team from MVP to scale. Work with the current team! |
Become a Co-founder + Equity-based Roles
2 roles – Post-consult pet care startup
📍 Remote, Melbourne preferred | Reimagining post-consult care in the veterinary industry. We’re building a seamless, data-driven platform that connects vets, nurses, and pet owners — enabling continuous recovery support for pets beyond the clinic |
Founding engineer – Pet healthcare startup
📍 Canberra, Remote | Founded by a veterinarian with more than a decade's experience, we support pets at home through personalised healthcare and recovery plans, digital health support and at-home testing. After securing pre-seed investment, we are accelerating our product development to help more pets (and their people) |
Technical Co-founder, Engineer – Voice AI Recruitment Platform
📍 Sydney Preferred | The product: a voice AI interviewer that screens candidates 24/7, providing rubric-based scores and transcripts to help recruiters make faster decisions. Early design partners and customers are already interested. Own the technical direction and product strategy alongside a founder with deep expertise in tech recruitment. |
Founding Engineer – Trauma-Informed Reporting Startup
📍 Remote | Join a mission-driven startup using AI to make workplaces safer, fairer, and more inclusive. Build intelligent systems that help organisations prevent and respond to bullying, harassment, and discrimination through secure reporting and data insights. |
Offers
Cheap, flexible, distraction-free co-working for Sydney-based founders
Haymarket HQ is the best kept secret in town when it comes to quiet, clean, comfortable hot-desking for entrepreneurs. With memberships starting at $115 / month for a part-time hot desk, their offer is hard to beat.
Mention SkillsRobin in your membership application for priority access
Work 3x faster - Translate speech to text with 95% accuracy with Wispr Flow. No need to stop to fix up punctuation. Get one month free of pro using this referral link
Get 10% Google Workplace for the first year when you sign up through this link https://referworkspace.app.goo.gl/9kwf
About SkillsRobin
SkillsRobin is an open-source employee referral program that connects startups with pre-vetted technical talent through trusted industry referrers.
Our fees are simple and founder-friendly:
No upfront costs - you only pay when you hire
$500 for part-time hires, $3,500 for full-time hires - only pay once they join your team
6-month guarantee - additional fee of the same amount only if hire stays 6+ months
10x cheaper than traditional recruiting agencies
25% discount on all fees for early, bootstrapping startups (<A$100,000 in funding raised or ARR < $100,000)
Candidates are developers based in ANZ, interested in working with early stage startups and come with referrals from industry professionals, saving you time in the initial screening process.
Know a founder looking for a CTO or founding engineer?
Forward this newsletter and speed up their search
Questions about any of these profiles or our process? Reply to this email ([email protected]) or visit our website