Open Source Engineer

OPEN SOURCE ENGINEER Firecrawl is looking for a high-agency engineer to own our open source work. That starts with the main Firecrawl repo — 170k+ stars and counting — which should stay the easiest thing in the category to self-host. It extends to the context primitives we're open sourcing now, starting with anydoc, our document parsing engine. You'll keep the core repo healthy and growing, build out the primitives, and think about what makes each one spread on its own. This is not a developer relations role. We want an engineer who ships the code, reviews the PRs, and makes the repos better every week. Community instincts help, but engineering quality, shipping velocity, and a track record of work people actually use matter most. Salary Range: $235,000–$260,000/year Equity Range: Competitive equity — details shared during the process. Location: San Francisco, CA Job Type: Full-Time Experience: 5+ years Visa: Must be legally authorized to work in the United States. We're not able to sponsor visas right now, though that may change down the line. ABOUT FIRECRAWL Firecrawl is the easiest way to turn the web into data AI agents can use. One API call converts any URL into clean, LLM-ready markdown or structured data - the boring-hard problem everyone building with LLMs eventually hits, solved. We hit 8 figures in ARR in year one and more than doubled it in year two. We have 175k+ GitHub stars, and developers, agents, and category-defining AI companies build on us every day. Growth like this is rare, and we're just getting started. We're a small team punching far above our weight. Everyone here owns a real piece of the product and company, end to end, and runs it themselves - no hiding behind process or headcount. This is a place for people who want to work at the frontier: an AI company building the infrastructure other AI companies run on, not one bolting AI onto an existing product. We move fast, go deep, and are building the tools superintelligence will rely on to gather data from the web. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own the main Firecrawl repo end to end — triage issues, review PRs, cut releases, write docs - Keep the self-host experience easy: clone it, run it, keep it running, no surprises - Build out new context primitives, starting with anydoc, our document parsing engine - Make the calls on scope and API design for what belongs in a primitive and what doesn't - Think about what makes an open source project spread on its own, and build toward that - Ship code and review PRs every week — this is an engineering seat, not a community seat WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - A real open source track record — maintaining a popular repo, or landing significant contributions to one - You care about the self-host experience and know what makes a repo easy to clone, run, and keep running - Comfortable owning a repo end to end, from triaging issues and reviewing PRs to cutting releases and writing docs - You've built parsers, crawlers, browser tooling, or developer libraries, and have taste in what belongs in a primitive and what doesn't - You understand how open source turns into adoption and pay attention to why some projects take off - High agency — happy to make calls on scope, API design, and what gets merged - Often a maintainer, ex-founder, early startup engineer, or builder with impressive public work WHAT WE'RE NOT LOOKING FOR - Someone looking for a developer relations role — this is an engineering seat first - Someone who wants community work to substitute for shipping code - Someone who needs a mapped-out roadmap before they'll make a scope call - Someone who's used open source but never maintained or owned a repo of real scale A NOTE ON PACE We operate at an absurd level of urgency because the window for what we're building won't stay open forever. If that excites you, keep reading. If it doesn't, no hard feelings — but this role probably isn't for you. BENEFITS & PERKS AVAILABLE TO ALL EMPLOYEES - Salary that makes sense — $235,000–$260,000/year, based on impact, not tenure - Own a piece — Gain competitive equity in what you're helping build - Generous PTO — 15 days mandatory, anything after 24 days, just ask (holidays excluded); take the time you need to recharge - Parental leave — 12 weeks fully paid, for all parents - Wellness stipend — $100/month for the gym, therapy, massages, or whatever keeps you human - Learning & Development — Expense up to $1,000/year toward anything that helps you grow professionally - Team offsites — A change of scenery, minus the trust falls - Sabbatical — 3 paid months off after 4 years, do something fun and new AVAILABLE TO US-BASED FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES - Full coverage, no red tape — Medical, dental, and vision (100% for employees, 50% for spouse/kids) — no weird loopholes, just care that works - Life & Disability insurance — Employer-paid short