About the Role
A Y Combinator-backed AI startup is looking for a Founding Engineer – Full Stack to join a small founding team at the ground floor. The company operates at the intersection of AI research, product, and engineering — building tools that help brands understand and shape how large language models perceive and represent them. This is a rare opportunity to co-define engineering culture and practices from day one in a fast-moving, high-impact environment.
What You'll Do
Own problems end-to-end — from customer insight and product requirements all the way through research and infrastructure.
Maintain a tight feedback loop with customers and the founding team; ship features quickly and iteratively.
Help define and shape the engineering team's culture, patterns, and best practices.
Continuously explore and reinvent how engineering teams work effectively alongside AI agents.
What We're Looking For
Required
1+ years of experience on engineering teams (2+ preferred), including at least one stint longer than 18 months in a strong startup or scale-up environment.
Full-stack proficiency — comfortable owning customer-facing UI through to infrastructure.
Hands-on experience with React, Python, Terraform, and AWS.
Experience building agentic systems or working with LLMs in production.
Strong product sense and design instincts; able to translate customer needs into shippable features.
Startup experience or self-driven personal projects that demonstrate initiative and high agency.
Must be a US citizen or have US work authorization (no visa sponsorship for candidates outside the US).
Nice to Have
Scientific or academic research background.
Direct customer-facing experience in a technical role.
Enthusiasm for adopting AI-powered coding and productivity tools.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary: $150,000 – $250,000 USD annually (depending on experience)
Early-stage equity
Visa sponsorship available for eligible candidates
Location
This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco.