Fourthwall, Inc. – senior and staff software engineer recruitment in Poland for a global SaaS creator platform

Tatia Tatoshvili

Last updated on October 28, 2025 | 15 min read

• Learn how DevsData LLC helped Fourthwall, Inc. hire senior and staff-level Java/Kotlin engineers in Poland, achieving a 100% offer acceptance rate and zero attrition.
• Discover how targeted sourcing and Java Virtual Machine (JVM)-focused screening helped a fast-growing SaaS platform scale its backend team quickly and without compromise.

Introduction

Powering a global SaaS platform for creators requires engineers who can design scalable systems, write efficient code, and adapt quickly to the fast pace of the creator economy.

Fourthwall, Inc. is a rapidly growing US-based platform that helps creators launch storefronts, sell digital and physical products, and build direct relationships with their audiences. When the company set out to expand its engineering team in Poland, it turned to DevsData LLC for strategic recruitment support. Fourthwall chose DevsData for its proven track record in sourcing senior JVM talent and scaling high-performing tech teams across Central Europe.

This case study explores how DevsData LLC helped Fourthwall secure exceptional senior and staff software engineers, including Java specialists and in-demand Kotlin experts, to strengthen their backend systems and support product-led growth across global markets.

Client overview

Fourthwall, Inc. is a US-based SaaS company powering the commerce behind many standout online creators, like Philip DeFranco, enabling them to launch storefronts, sell merchandise, and deepen audience connections. Today, the platform supports over 50000 creators globally. Designed to help creators launch storefronts, sell digital and physical products, and strengthen audience relationships through personalized experiences, exclusive content, and integrated communication tools, Fourthwall blends content, commerce, and technology into a unified platform.

With estimated annual revenue of $24.1 million and approximately 150 employees, the company is scaling both its business and technical footprint. Amid growing platform complexity and velocity, Fourthwall required elite backend engineering talent to strengthen its core infrastructure and support new product initiatives.

To enable this expansion, Fourthwall established a strategic engineering operation in Poland, leveraging the region’s strong tech talent and favorable time zone alignment, with DevsData LLC assisting throughout the process by sourcing and securing senior JVM engineers.

Challenge

As Fourthwall, Inc. expanded its global engineering footprint into Poland, it faced a unique set of recruitment challenges. These were driven by the high calibre of talent required, the emerging nature of its technology stack, and the company’s commitment to product-led growth in a fast-moving SaaS environment.

Staff-level talent with modern JVM expertise

Fourthwall wasn’t recruiting for entry-level roles or generic backend development positions. The company specifically needed senior and staff engineers who could immediately contribute to the scalability and resilience of their platform, bringing both depth and architectural foresight.

Key requirements included:

• Expert-level Java developers with extensive experience in large-scale, modular backend systems, for example, microservices architectures built on Spring Boot, distributed systems using Kafka, and cloud-native deployments on AWS or GCP;
• A Kotlin specialist comfortable working in a modern, functional programming environment, with several years of production experience or multiple large-scale projects, in asynchronous design patterns and JVM tuning;
• Proven ability to work in high-ownership environments, where engineers influence product direction, contribute to infrastructure decisions, and mentor junior team members;
• Familiarity with SaaS-specific challenges such as multi-tenancy, security, CI/CD, and API lifecycle management.

These candidates had to not only demonstrate technical excellence but also fit within Fourthwall’s engineering culture, optimized for lean, collaborative, and product-focused development.

Kotlin demand and talent scarcity

While Kotlin has become increasingly mainstream, especially among modern backend teams, senior engineers with deep, production-level Kotlin experience remain in high demand and relatively short supply in Central Europe. Kotlin, a modern language running on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), is favored for its concise syntax, strong type safety, and interoperability with Java, making it a popular choice for scalable, maintainable backend systems. While Poland offered a strong overall talent pool, identifying candidates with deep, production-level Kotlin expertise, beyond experimental or Android-focused use, remained challenging in the Central European market.

In addition, Fourthwall’s standards for software quality, peer collaboration, and self-direction further narrowed the field, making traditional inbound recruitment channels insufficient.

Poland as a strategic engineering hub

Fourthwall’s new team in Poland was not an outsourcing experiment, it was a core extension of its global engineering capability. The company required developers who could integrate seamlessly with US-based counterparts, operate autonomously, and take ownership of complex feature work and refactoring initiatives.

That meant sourcing not just engineers who could write clean, efficient code, but leaders who could architect scalable systems, set technical direction, and mentor teams to deliver on long-term platform goals.

Given the high expectations, emerging tech stack, and limited candidate availability, Fourthwall selected DevsData LLC as its recruitment partner, trusted for its experience in complex, senior-level placements across Poland and Central Europe.

DevsData LLC’s approach and solution

At DevsData LLC, we treat recruitment as a continuation of product development, ensuring that every engineering hire strengthens the client’s technology stack, especially in core roles that drive scalability, performance, resilience, and user experience. For Fourthwall, Inc., we combined our consultative hiring model with a tailored execution strategy, ensuring every candidate was not only technically excellent but also aligned with the company’s product-driven culture and long-term engineering roadmap.

Dedicated recruitment unit

To deliver on Fourthwall’s requirements, we assembled a dedicated team that included an account manager for lifecycle coordination, senior sourcing specialists mapping JVM talent across Poland and neighboring markets, technical interviewers designing Java/Kotlin assessments, and a talent market analyst providing real-time insights into salary expectations and availability. This structure gave us the ability to operate with speed and precision while staying closely aligned with Fourthwall’s leadership in both the US and Poland.

Market and talent focus

Our sourcing targeted Poland’s strongest engineering hubs, Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, and Wroclaw, prioritizing backend developers with 5+ years of JVM experience, deep Java/Kotlin expertise, and strong microservices and cloud-native backgrounds. We built candidate personas with clear expectations around ownership, architectural influence, and SaaS-specific challenges like multi-tenancy and CI/CD. This approach eliminated mismatches early and kept the pipeline focused on high-fit senior professionals.

Rigorous technical screening

Every candidate underwent a structured evaluation process tailored to Fourthwall’s backend architecture. Assessments included advanced Java/Kotlin coding tasks on concurrency and asynchronous design, system design challenges around multi-tenant infrastructure and caching, and code review sessions to measure debugging skills and maintainability. This depth ensured candidates could contribute immediately while also guiding long-term architectural decisions.

Collaborative and transparent model

We maintained a live candidate dashboard, coordinated a dedicated Slack channel, and held weekly syncs with stakeholders to review pipeline health and evolving priorities. This transparency streamlined decision-making, accelerated interview scheduling, and kept candidates engaged, even in a highly competitive market.

Live candidate dashboard (Mini view)

A compact real-time view showing:

• Key stats at a glance, active candidates, offers sent, and acceptances.
• The full hiring pipeline from Sourced to Hired.
• A simple table with each candidate’s stage, owner, and next step.
• Quick filters by role, stage, or date to find what matters fast.

Candidate experience and onboarding

Because Fourthwall needed engineers with leadership potential, we emphasized a high-touch candidate experience. Beyond technical vetting, interviews explored collaboration in distributed teams and mentoring capabilities. We also provided pre-offer briefings, post-hire check-ins, and onboarding coordination to minimize friction and accelerate time-to-impact. This respectful, consultative process built trust with candidates, reinforced Fourthwall’s developer-first culture, and secured a 100% offer acceptance rate.

Continuous refinement

Throughout the engagement, we iterated based on performance data, adjusting outreach copy to appeal to Kotlin-focused talent, refining technical tasks to emphasize architectural thinking, and reallocating sourcing channels to maximize conversion. This agile approach allowed us to sustain a high-quality pipeline, even for niche senior-level roles.

Results

Through DevsData LLC’s targeted recruitment strategy, deep technical assessments, and fast-track selection model, Fourthwall, Inc. successfully expanded its backend engineering team in Poland with senior professionals capable of driving architecture-level decisions in a modern SaaS environment. The collaboration significantly strengthened the company’s engineering capacity, supporting platform scalability, backend system resilience, and faster feature delivery.

Key achievements:

High-calibre backend team expansion

Over the course of the engagement, DevsData LLC placed four senior engineers into Fourthwall’s Poland-based team, including:

• 2 staff-level Java developers – responsible for backend architecture, service orchestration, and distributed systems optimization within the core SaaS platform;
• 1 Kotlin specialist – driving adoption of modern JVM practices and enhancing developer experience through cleaner, maintainable code;
• 1 senior backend engineer – focused on scalability, API design, and system observability in production environments.

Each hire was fully integrated into Fourthwall’s remote-friendly engineering organisation and began contributing to mission-critical backend components within their first month.

Exceptional interview-to-hire ratio

DevsData LLC maintained a >70% candidate-to-interview progression rate, demonstrating the effectiveness of its pre-screening process for senior Java and Kotlin developers. This precision significantly reduced the time and effort required from Fourthwall’s internal team, streamlining decision-making and preserving engineering focus.

100% offer acceptance rate and long-term retention

All offers extended were accepted, reflecting strong candidate engagement, role alignment, and transparent communication throughout the hiring journey. Key success drivers included:

• Clear articulation of technical challenges and product roadmap;
• Employer branding framed around innovation, ownership, and developer-first culture;
• Fast, responsive feedback cycles and direct access to Fourthwall’s technical leadership.

All four engineers remain active contributors within the organisation, with zero attrition, highlighting both long-term fit and high satisfaction among senior technical hires.

By delivering deeply aligned senior talent under tight timelines, DevsData LLC helped Fourthwall, Inc. reinforce its backend foundation and scale confidently, accelerating feature velocity, strengthening architecture decisions, and laying the groundwork for continued SaaS growth.

Summary of key metrics

• Time-to-offer cycle: 7–10 days average
• Interview-to-hire ratio: >70%
• Offer acceptance rate: 100%
• Drop-off rate post-final interview: <5%
• Total hires delivered: 4 (2 staff engineers, 2 senior engineers)
• Primary sourcing success: >80% from passive candidate outreach

Through a strategic, technically precise recruitment process, DevsData LLC helped Fourthwall build a high-impact backend team in Poland, strengthening the foundation of its creator-focused SaaS platform and accelerating product delivery at a critical stage of growth.

Business impact

The partnership between Fourthwall, Inc. and DevsData LLC played a critical role in supporting the company’s growth and technical evolution in Europe. By successfully hiring two staff-level and two senior-level backend engineers in Poland, each with deep Java and Kotlin expertise, Fourthwall was able to expand its engineering capacity without overextending its US-based leadership team.

The new hires brought immediate value by taking ownership of complex backend systems critical to platform stability, scalability, and user experience. With Kotlin and modern Java at the core of Fourthwall’s stack, these engineers helped streamline code quality, reduce technical debt, and accelerate development velocity on key product features for the creator economy.

Beyond direct technical contributions, the collaboration established a repeatable, high-precision recruitment model tailored to Fourthwall’s standards and culture. DevsData LLC became a trusted hiring partner, enabling the company to confidently grow its distributed team while maintaining high bars for quality, ownership, and performance, laying the groundwork for long-term scaling in Poland and beyond.

Case match: Is your company similar to Fourthwall, Inc.?

A short 3-question diagnostic:

• Are you building a high-calibre engineering team in Central or Eastern Europe?
• Do your backend systems demand strong Java, Kotlin, or modern JVM expertise?
• Have you struggled to find senior and staff-level engineers who combine deep technical skill with product mindset and startup readiness?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above, DevsData LLC can help you build the talent foundation your platform needs, just as we did for Fourthwall, Inc.

Interested in building a high-performing tech team? Contact DevsData LLC at general@devsdata.com or visit www.devsdata.com to learn more.

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Tatia Tatoshvili Copywriter and Marketer

Tatia Tatoshvili is a Marketing and Communications professional with deep expertise in digital strategy and project management. Tatia’s experience includes implementing strategic marketing campaigns, elevating brand visibility, and building partnerships that expand education and job opportunities in the digital sector. She is passionate about fostering innovation and advancing digital literacy to create lasting impact.

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