Founding Engineer

About this role

Join a Y Combinator-backed enterprise AI startup as a Founding Engineer, operating at near-CTO level to build and scale an agentic operating system that automates complex workflows. You'll own large product areas end-to-end, working across Go backend and React/TypeScript frontend with direct user interaction and minimal oversight.

What you'll do

• Own product features end-to-end from discovery through production deployment
• Build and improve agentic AI systems focusing on accuracy, reliability, and capability expansion
• Work full-stack: Go backend services and React + Vite (TypeScript) frontend applications
• Engage directly with users to understand pain points and scope impactful features
• Design and implement AI-driven product features with real-world business impact
• Maintain high code quality standards through rapid, thoughtful code reviews

What they're looking for

• Go (Golang) — production backend experience (required)
• React and TypeScript — modern frontend development (required)
• REST and gRPC APIs in microservices architectures
• CI/CD, automated testing, deployment workflows, and production monitoring
• Agent orchestration, prompt engineering, and LLM frameworks (nice-to-have)
• Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP) and containerization (Docker/Kubernetes)
• Relational databases (Postgres/MySQL) and NoSQL systems
• Product thinking and ownership in ambiguous environments

Benefits

• Salary: $120,000–$250,000 USD annually
• Generous equity package at founding-engineer level
• Unlimited AI tooling budget for development
• Direct collaboration with technical co-founders
• Rapid career growth in high-ownership role
• On-site in San Francisco with genuine founding-stage autonomy

Likely interview questions

• Walk us through a Go backend service you built in production—what were the key architectural decisions and operational challenges?
• Tell us about a time you shipped a full-stack feature (backend + frontend) without clear specifications. How did you scope it and validate the approach?