About Athlete To Athlete
Athlete To Athlete is a venture-backed startup based in Santa Monica that offers athletic mentorship and coaching programs for youth athletes enabled by an AI-powered online platform. In our programs, youth athletes are paired with mentors in their sport who are current NCAA athletes and can help build their confidence, taking their game to the next level. Our mission is to build the next generation of driven, confident, and resilient student-athletes through mentorship.
About The Role
In this position, you will be a key contributor to building and enhancing the digital backbone of Athlete To Athlete. We are looking for an "AI-First" engineer—someone who doesn't just write code, but leverages the latest in Generative AI to accelerate development cycles and builds intelligent features that redefine youth sports mentorship.
You will work across our entire stack, from crafting responsive customer-facing interfaces to architecting robust APIs and AI-driven backend logic. This role requires a deep understanding of full-stack development combined with a passion for integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI tools into the product and the development workflow itself. You will own projects from ideation to deployment, seeing your impact on our athletes and mentors in real-time.
As a core member of a lean startup team in Santa Monica, you’ll collaborate with marketing, sales, and operations to build systems from the ground up that are smarter, faster, and more scalable than traditional architectures.
This is an hybrid/on-site position based in Santa Monica.
Key Responsibilities
AI-Driven Development: Utilize AI coding assistants (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code) to maintain high-velocity output and ensure code quality, while staying updated on the latest AI development trends.
Product Intelligence: Design and implement AI-powered features, such as personalized mentor matching, automated content moderation, and intelligent communication tools for athletes.
Full-Stack Engineering: Build and maintain robust web applications and websites using React/Next.js, eventually expanding into native mobile environments.
Backend & API Architecture: Develop scalable APIs and backend services in Python/Django, integrating third-party AI APIs (Vertex AI, etc.) to enhance platform capabilities.
Data Stewardship: Design and optimize Postgres databases to manage data securely, ensuring our data architecture is "AI-ready" for future training or RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) implementations.
Cross-Functional Optimization: Partner with teams across the company to automate internal workflows using AI, streamlining the customer lifecycle and operational efficiency.
Required Qualifications
AI-Native Mindset: Demonstrated experience using AI tools to accelerate your development workflow and a clear vision for how AI can transform the user experience in sports tech.
Technical Excellence: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience with a strong foundation in modern web development (performance, accessibility, and SEO).
Frontend Mastery: Deep experience with React and Next.js.
Backend Proficiency: Familiarity with Python and Django (or a strong desire to master them quickly).
Data Fluency: Comfortable with Postgres or other relational database systems.
Agile Problem Solving: Strong communication skills and the ability to pivot quickly in a fast-paced startup environment.
Nice to Have
AI Integration: Experience working with LLM APIs, prompt engineering, or vector databases.
Marketplace Experience: Previous work building two-sided marketplaces.
Infrastructure: Experience managing AWS or other cloud providers.
Startup Grit: Previous experience in early-stage companies where you wore many hats.
The Athlete’s Edge: Experience as a college athlete or a deep passion for the youth sports ecosystem.
Athlete to Athlete is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran or disability status.
