Founding Engineer, Marketplace (London)
Department: Engineering
Reports to: Max (Head of Marketplace)
Location: London (Hybrid — The Church, 291 Hackney Road)
Type: Full-time | Equity + Salary
About Wonder Studios
Wonder Studios is an AI-native film and content studio redefining how stories are told. We partner with global brands, artists, and studios to create world-class campaigns, films, and experiences that merge cinematic craft with cutting-edge AI technology.
Backed by leading global investors, Wonder recently closed a $12M seed round to accelerate its next phase of growth — expanding our team and building the future of storytelling.
Our work spans entertainment, advertising, and original content (IP) — collaborating with partners such as YouTube, Google DeepMind, Universal Music Group, Campfire Studios and leading global artists.
Learn more at wonderstudios.com.
The Role
We're building the infrastructure that connects creators with fans, tech companies with talent, and filmmakers with the resources they need to make extraordinary work.
Wonder's Marketplace is the engine behind all of it — a platform that blends the discovery model of Apple TV with the creator economy of Patreon, built specifically for the AI creative industry. We're not just building a community. We're building the place where the next generation of filmmakers gets found, supported, and paid.
Right now our Marketplace has 2,000+ members, real enterprise clients, and Wonder TV — a curated streaming platform — live inside the app. We're at the inflection point between Circle-hosted MVP and fully custom platform, and we need a founding engineer to help us get there.
This is a 0-to-1 role. You'll work alongside Rick (Founding Engineer), Max (Head of Marketplace), and JD (Product & Ops) to own meaningful product surface areas from day one — not tickets in a backlog, but real decisions that shape how creators earn and how talent gets discovered.
What You'll Build
Wonder TV — Stage 2 and beyond
We're live on Circle (Stage 1). Stage 2 is a custom NextJS frontend reading from Circle's backend — a proper VOD experience with discovery, watch pages, and creator profiles. Stage 3 takes us off Circle entirely. You'll be instrumental in both.
Jobs Board
A talent marketplace connecting Wonder's creator community with brands, studios, and agencies looking for AI-native creative talent. A standalone product to design, build, and launch.
Creator Profiles & Roster
Public-facing profiles connected to Wonder MGMT — portfolio hosting, enquiry flows, social proof, and direct client booking. The infrastructure that makes Wonder a talent platform, not just a community.
Fan Film Finance
The long-term vision: fans co-financing films directly alongside the creators they follow — micro-contributions, tokenised film rights, or Patreon-style subscriptions tied to production milestones. Frontier territory. We want someone who finds it exciting.
Marketplace Infrastructure
Search, discovery, matching, payments, notifications, permissions, moderation — the fundamentals that make a marketplace work at scale.
The Stack
- Frontend: NextJS, React, Tailwind
- Backend: Node.js / TypeScript, REST + GraphQL
- Database: PostgreSQL (as we move off Circle)
- Infrastructure: Vercel, Cloudflare, Circle.so (for now)
- Auth: Auth0
- Payments: Stripe
- AI: Fluency with AI tooling is essential — you'll be building on top of it, not alongside it
What Success Looks Like
This role is about moving numbers that matter:
- 2k → 10k MAU — Every product decision you make either accelerates or slows this. You'll own the surfaces that drive it.
- $1M+ ARR from the Marketplace — Through Wonder TV subscriptions, Jobs Board fees, and Wonder MGMT commission. You'll build all three revenue streams.
- Wonder TV as the Patreon of the AI creative industry — Subscriptions, revenue sharing, direct fan contributions, and film financing. The engineer who builds this well isn't shipping features — they're defining a new category.
- Revenue per headcount — Wonder's North Star. Build infrastructure that makes the platform more self-sustaining and the team more productive.
Who We're Looking For
Background
- 5+ years of full-stack engineering experience
- Has built and shipped a marketplace, creator platform, or community platform — ideally as an early or founding engineer
- Comfortable owning a feature from database schema to UI
- Strong product opinions, not just engineering opinions — you care about what you're building and why
- AI-fluent: you use AI tools daily and are opinionated about where they help and where they don't
- London-based — we're in the Church (291 Hackney Road) and the energy matters
The Person
- Bias to action — ships fast, iterates, doesn't wait for perfect
- High ownership — treats the product like it's theirs
- Commercially curious — understands that great engineering serves a business outcome
- Collaborative — works well with product, design, and non-technical stakeholders
- Excited by the intersection of culture, creativity, and technology — this isn't a fintech gig
Nice to Have
- Experience with tokenisation, web3 infrastructure, or fan finance mechanisms
- Experience building video or streaming products
- Experience with Circle.so or similar community platforms
- Background in creative industries — media, music, entertainment, or gaming
Compensation
Competitive London market rate + meaningful founding engineer equity.
Why Join Wonder
You'll join a small, ambitious team at the frontier of storytelling and technology — working alongside world-class creators, technologists, and storytellers who are building what comes next.
The Marketplace you'll build will connect creators with fans, tech companies with world-class talent, and filmmakers with the tools and finance they need to make extraordinary work. It's Patreon meets Apple TV, built for the AI creative era — and you'll be the engineer who makes it real.
You'll have direct access to leadership, real ownership from day one, and a community of 2,000+ AI-native creators as your users.
At Wonder, we're shaping the future of entertainment. We'd love for you to help build it.
