Hire a freelance product engineer

A product engineer works across the whole product: the engineering, the design, and the decisions in between. Instead of splitting the work between a designer, a frontend developer, and a backend developer, you work with one person who can take an idea and carry it all the way to production.

That is how I have worked for over ten years. I was the founding engineer at VESYL for close to five years, built the backend behind the streaming platform of Barry’s Bootcamp, and shipped work for teams like Testlio, Noisli, and Downtobid.

I work with early stage startups and founders, usually as the main engineer on the project, remotely from Brazil.

Hunter Hartman CEO, VESYL

Absolutely tremendous developer, creator, and leader.

Ruan is exactly the person you want in the room. He is incredibly innovative and possesses a rare combination of elite technical capability and tremendous design skills.

He has my highest recommendation for any organization looking for a top-tier developer and leader.

What I can help with

  • Taking a product from idea to launch, end to end
  • Designing and building user interfaces that feel good to use
  • Backend systems, APIs, and third party integrations
  • Turning vague requirements into a concrete, shippable plan
  • Improving existing products: performance, UX, and code quality
  • Working directly with founders, no spec or manager needed

Experience

At VESYL I was the founding engineer and, for nearly five years, the main engineer behind most of the product: a shipping platform for ecommerce sellers with integrations across Shopify, eBay, Amazon, and more. I designed screens, built the backend, and shipped new product lines.

Before that I worked on the backend of a platform with over a million users at Testlio, and built products for companies like Noisli, Queie, and Flipfox. The common thread is the same: I care about the engineering, the design, and the product in equal measure.

Questions

What is a product engineer?

A product engineer is a software engineer who works across the full product, not just one layer of it. That includes backend and frontend engineering, interface design, and product decisions like what to build and how it should work. Product engineers are most useful on small teams where one person owning a feature end to end moves faster than a chain of handoffs.

What is the difference between a product engineer and a full stack developer?

A full stack developer works across the backend and the frontend. A product engineer does that too, but also takes ownership of the design and the product thinking: what to build, why, and how it should feel to use. If you hand a product engineer a rough idea, you get back a shipped feature, not a list of questions.

How much does it cost to hire a freelance product engineer?

It depends on the scope. I work with fixed project fees and monthly retainers instead of hourly billing, so you know the cost up front. After a short chat about your project I put together a clear proposal with the option that fits best.

How do we start working together?

Send an email to [email protected] with a short description of what you are building, or book a quick chat at cal.com/ruanmartinelli/quick-chat. If I am not the right fit, I will say so and try to point you to someone who is.

Related guides

You can browse all guides or read more about working with me .

Let's chat

Send me an email and tell me what you are building and what kind of help you need.

If I am not the right fit, I will say so and try to point you to someone who is.

[email protected]
cal.com/ruanmartinelli/quick-chat