Founding Engineer

Accountabilities:

• Build scalable technical infrastructure: Design and implement the architecture, systems, and infrastructure required to support substantial product growth, ensuring reliability, performance, and scalability as the user base expands.
• Develop AI agent infrastructure: Build and operate the agent runtime, including orchestration, memory management, verification mechanisms, and supporting systems that enable dependable AI-powered workflows.
• Own end-to-end product development: Lead projects from initial concept through deployment, working across backend services, infrastructure, frontend interfaces, and AI agent functionality.
• Transform prototypes into production systems: Evolve existing product capabilities into robust, maintainable solutions that can reliably support real-world business operations and demanding production workloads.
• Drive technical architecture and decision-making: Work directly with the founder to define the technical vision, evaluate architectural trade-offs, select appropriate technologies, and establish the foundations for long-term product development.
• Establish engineering standards: Introduce development practices, architectural principles, and quality standards that support efficient delivery and prepare the engineering organization for future growth.
• Deliver continuous product improvements: Ship enhancements regularly, respond to user feedback, and prioritize improvements that create measurable value for businesses relying on the platform.
• Improve AI system reliability: Develop and refine agent workflows, evaluations, memory systems, and verification processes to improve the consistency and dependability of AI-driven functionality.
• Operate with broad ownership: Identify technical challenges proactively, make independent decisions, and balance immediate product needs with the long-term quality and scalability of the platform.

Requirements:

• Professional engineering experience: At least two years of experience delivering production software, or an equivalent track record as a founder, independent builder, or exceptional early-career engineer with demonstrated technical ability.
• Production AI experience: Hands-on experience building and operating large language model (LLM) applications or AI agent systems in production, particularly products used by real customers or businesses.
• Full-stack engineering capabilities: Ability to work across backend development, infrastructure, and frontend interfaces, with the versatility to take ownership of different technical challenges as priorities evolve.
• Strong software architecture skills: Experience designing reliable systems, including appropriate data models, runtime architecture, orchestration mechanisms, and infrastructure capable of supporting production workloads.
• AI agent expertise: Practical understanding of agent workflows, memory systems, evaluation methods, verification techniques, or related approaches to improving the reliability of AI-powered applications is highly valuable.
• Entrepreneurial mindset: Evidence of making technical decisions independently, taking ownership of complex projects, and delivering functional solutions quickly in an early-stage startup, founder-led, or independent working environment.
• Generalist problem-solving ability: Strong fundamentals in software engineering, analytical thinking, debugging, and system design, with the ability to move between product, infrastructure, and AI-related challenges.
• Execution and adaptability: Ability to work effectively with ambiguity, prioritize competing demands, iterate rapidly, and make pragmatic trade-offs without compromising essential system reliability.
• Collaborative communication: Comfort working directly with a founder, contributing to product strategy, communicating technical decisions clearly, and helping establish a collaborative engineering culture.
• Location and relocation: Currently based in Europe and willing to relocate to San Francisco within the first year. Relocation support and visa sponsorship are available.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary: Annual base salary ranging from €80,000 to €140,000, depending on experience and qualifications.
• Visa sponsorship: Immigration support is available for relocation to San Francisco.
• Relocation assistance: Support for the move from Europe to San Francisco within the first year.
• Founding-level ownership: Take a leading role in shaping the product's architecture, technical direction, and engineering foundations from an early stage.
• Direct founder collaboration: Work closely with the founder, contributing to important technical and product decisions with a high degree of autonomy.
• Broad technical scope: Gain hands-on experience across full-stack engineering, AI agents, infrastructure, and production system design.
• Meaningful product impact: Build AI-powered solutions that support real businesses and influence how they operate.
• Opportunity to shape an engineering team: Establish technical standards, development practices, and architectural principles that guide future engineering hires.
• International career opportunity: Begin working remotely from Europe, with the opportunity to relocate to San Francisco and participate in the next stage of the company's growth.