Founding Engineer

About this role

A seed-stage AI data infrastructure startup seeks a Founding Engineer to design and operate core systems for a people-data and AI agent platform. You'll work directly with leadership on end-to-end projects, from infrastructure and APIs to LLM-powered workflows, with significant ownership and influence over technical direction through Series A.

What you'll do

• Design and build core infrastructure for APIs, LLM workflows, scraping systems, and knowledge graph architecture
• Architect production-grade systems handling millions of API requests with focus on performance and cost efficiency
• Own projects end-to-end from problem definition through deployment and iteration
• Collaborate with CEO and CTO on technical decisions and roadmap priorities
• Contribute across the stack including documentation, tooling, and experimental features
• Maintain reliable systems across cloud and Linux server environments

What they're looking for

• Production software shipping (1+ years required)
• APIs and distributed systems design
• Microservices and data pipelines
• LLMs and AI agents
• AWS or GCP cloud infrastructure
• Linux server environments
• High agency and first-principles thinking
• Performance and reliability optimization

Benefits

• Salary: $150,000–$220,000 USD annually
• Early-stage equity as founding team member
• Direct collaboration with CEO and CTO
• Significant technical ownership and influence
• On-site in San Francisco, CA
• 0-to-1 building opportunity in fast-moving environment