Founding Engineer – Full Stack
About the Role
Join the founding engineering team of a Y Combinator–backed AI startup building brand intelligence tooling at the intersection of AI research, product, and engineering. This company helps brands understand how large language models perceive and talk about them — and how to shape that narrative. As a Founding Engineer, you'll have outsized ownership and impact, working directly with customers and leadership to ship end-to-end features in a fast-moving environment.
What You'll Do
• Own problems end-to-end — from high-level customer insight through research and infrastructure.
• Maintain a close feedback loop with customers and the executive team, shipping quickly and iteratively.
• Help shape the culture, patterns, and practices of a brand-new engineering team.
• Continuously reinvent best practices for building alongside AI agents as a core part of the development workflow.
What We're Looking For
Required:
• 1+ years of experience on an engineering team (2+ preferred); includes at least one stint of 18+ months in a strong engineering environment (scale-up or startup).
• Proficiency with React, Python, Terraform, and AWS.
• Comfortable working full-stack — from customer-facing UI all the way down to infrastructure.
• Experience building agentic systems.
• Strong product sense and design intuition; able to translate customer needs into shipped features.
• Startup experience or self-driven personal projects that demonstrate initiative and high agency.
• US citizen or eligible to work in the US (visa sponsorship available).
Nice to Have:
• Direct experience working with customers.
• Scientific or AI research background, especially in AI interpretability.
• Eagerness to adopt and adapt to AI-powered coding tools and emerging engineering workflows.
Compensation & Benefits
• Salary: $150,000 – $250,000 USD annually
• Early-stage equity
• Visa sponsorship available
Location
This is a full-time, on-site role based in San Francisco, CA. Remote work is not available for this position.
