Small team. Real craft.
Slow growth on purpose.
We're seven people in Melbourne building a platform we'd want to use ourselves. We hire rarely, but when we do, we hire for life. If that pace sounds right, the open roles and the hiring philosophy are below.
What's open right now.
We post roles only when they're real. No "future opportunities" posters, no evergreen "we're always hiring" lines. As of today, two roles are open.
Senior full-stack engineer (Ruby/Rails + React)
Engineering · Melbourne or remote AU · Full-time · $150–180k + super + equity
Content lead (Hosts & community)
Content · Melbourne preferred · Full-time · $110–130k + super + equity
Don't see what you do listed? That's by design.
We don't accept generic applications. If you have something specific you've built or written that maps to MingleIn's mission, send it anyway. We read every email and reply within 5 business days. join@minglein.com.au
Seven people building it.
No middle management, no ambiguous "head of" titles. Everyone ships. The list below is everyone, end of list.
Mark Fairhall
Founder & product. Started MingleIn in 2024. Sets the bar on the no-AI policy. Reads every Host application.
Eliza P.
Engineering lead. Built the video pipeline and the Watch Party engine. Lives by the 90-day access window.
Jordan R.
Design. Owns brand and product design. Believes "boring beats clever" is the highest compliment.
Sam K.
Marketing manager. Wrote the pre-launch content plan. Replies to LinkedIn comments inside the four-hour window.
Tilly C.
Host onboarding. Calls every Founding Host applicant. Knows the smokehouse, watercolour, and resin scenes by name.
Daniel R.
Engineering. Payments, payouts and the calculator. Thinks GST should be a one-liner. It isn't.
Kira H.
Operations & trust. Owns content review, refunds, and the AI-detection workflow. Replies to every flagged report.
Could be you
Open: Sr engineer. We're hiring our next engineer. Read the role above.
Six principles we won't budge on.
We've reverse-engineered our hiring process from what we wished candidates had told us about previous companies. The principles below explain why our process looks the way it does.
- 01 — No coding interviews. We assess engineering through paid take-home work and pair programming on real problems. Why: whiteboard puzzles select for who studied the puzzles, not who builds well.
- 02 — Paid trial work, no exceptions. Take-home work is paid at $200/hr. Why: if we're asking you to spend three hours of your weekend on us, we'll respect that with money, not a Slack thank-you.
- 03 — No "culture fit" tests. We ask "what do we disagree on?" instead. Why: "fit" is a euphemism for "looks like the existing team". We want disagreement, just well-reasoned disagreement.
- 04 — Salary disclosed in the ad. Every role lists a salary band. Why: "competitive" wastes everyone's time. If our band doesn't match yours, we'd both rather know in five minutes than five interviews.
- 05 — Decision in 10 business days. From first application to yes/no in two weeks. Why: long processes mostly select for who can afford to wait, not who's best for the job.
- 06 — Honest feedback if it's a no. Every "no" gets specific written feedback within 5 days. Why: we benefited from honest feedback ourselves and we owe it forward.
Four steps over two weeks.
- 1. Apply (Day 1–3). CV plus a 3-paragraph "why this role". Reviewed by the hiring manager (Mark for product roles, Eliza for engineering).
- 2. Initial call (Day 4–7). 45-minute Zoom. Two-way: us asking about your work, you asking what living with this role actually looks like.
- 3. Paid take-home (Day 8–11). $200/hr, 3-hour scope. A real problem from our backlog. Yours to keep regardless of outcome. Reviewed by two of us.
- 4. Decision & offer (Day 12–14). Yes or no, in writing, with reasons. Offer includes salary, super, equity, leave, the lot. Two business days to decide.
What you get if we hire you.
Salary at the 75th percentile
Benchmarked against the AU tech market. What this means: we're not the highest payer in town, but we're in the top quartile, and we're transparent about it.
Real equity, not phantom
Every full-time hire gets ESOP options. Vesting over 4 years with a 1-year cliff. Strike price set at market.
25 days leave + your birthday
Annual leave, with your birthday off as a 26th day. Sick leave is unlimited and not tracked.
Office in Collingwood, hybrid by default
2 days a week in office is the norm. Fully remote inside Australia is workable for the right role. International remote is not.
Workshop budget, $1,000/year
Spend it on MingleIn workshops or any other learning, books, courses, conferences. We dogfood our own product.
Parental leave: 16 weeks at full pay
For all parents, gender-neutral, regardless of role of birthing parent. Plus a phased return-to-work for the next 8 weeks.
Two commitments we publish.
We publish our pay bands. Internal salary bands are visible to every employee. Each level has a band; each role sits inside one. No "secret salaries". Bands are reviewed annually against market data and against each other. We commit to closing pay gaps inside 90 days when found, with backpay if applicable.
No salary history asked. We never ask what you currently earn. We pay what the role pays. Asking salary history just locks in past underpayment, particularly for women and people from underrepresented backgrounds. This is in writing in our hiring playbook. Hold us to it if a recruiter slips.
Want to build with us? Send the email.
One open application address. Every email is read within five business days. No application form, no recruiter portal, no AI-screening bot.