Engineer in the Loop

Role Overview

We’re building the future of software development: AI agents that work with you, right inside VS Code. Our vision is to give every builder their own AI team, enabling them to build faster, smarter, and with way less overhead. As an Engineer in the Loop, you'll help invent and build this new development model from the ground up.

This isn’t just about writing code, it’s about pushing your own capabilities to the next level. You’ll use Roo Code for everything you build, relying on it as your copilot, debugger, planner, and productivity engine. We expect you to leverage and evolve the tool you’re building to produce far more impact than most people would think possible.

You’ll also be a key part of our open-source community. That means collaborating with contributors, listening to their ideas, and thoughtfully reviewing and integrating their pull requests. We believe great engineers build in public, grow with others, and treat community not as overhead, but as leverage.

Key Responsibilities

• Ship core product features using TypeScript, Node.js, and React
• Design AI agent infrastructure such as memory, planning, orchestration, context handling
• Use Roo Code for all your own development, shaping the product by depending on it
• Collaborate with and integrate contributions from our open-source community

• You’ve shipped high-quality full-stack code (TypeScript, Node.js, React, etc.) and owned user-facing products end-to-end
• You’ve started something (an app, tool, company, or open-source project) and want your work to be seen, used, and felt by millions
• You think clearly, execute ruthlessly, and stay focused on real user value
• You’ve already built with LLMs - whether that’s shipping tools powered by OpenAI, Anthropic, or other models - and you understand prompt engineering as a new form of systems design
• You’ve tried management to scale your impact, but missed building; you want leverage without leaving the keyboard behind

Bonus Points

• Experience building VS Code extensions or developer tools
• Familiarity with prompt design, tool interfaces, or agent frameworks
• Contributions to open-source communities

About Roo Code

Roo Code is an open-source software development platform that adds an AI-powered team of coding agents directly into Visual Studio Code through an extension. Our mission is to empower a global community of builders to drive huge impact by leveraging advanced AI capabilities.

Why This Role is Unique

• You’re Designing the Future: Not just building tools, but creating a new way to write software with AI.
• You’re Collaborating With AI as a Teammate: You’ll learn how to direct, shape, and scale an AI team.
• You’ll Have Leverage, Not Overhead: This is a role for builders who want big impact without management overhead.
• Open-Source First: Roo Code is already used by hundreds of thousands and growing fast.