Founding AI Engineer — Agent Runtime ($100k-$150k + Equity) at Pareto Agent

About this role

Pareto Agent, a VC-backed AI startup, is seeking its first founding engineer to build a policy-driven runtime for autonomous B2B sales agents. You'll architect deterministic execution systems that enforce commercial guardrails and enable safe, reliable autonomous decision-making in high-stakes negotiations.

What you'll do

• Design and own the multi-stage agent pipeline including intent classification, context assembly, and reasoning loops
• Build event-driven runtime and evaluation framework to enforce commercial policies and detect regressions
• Architect context management systems for data retrieval, compression, and utilization at scale
• Ensure AI decisions protect revenue and follow strict safety guardrails
• Develop robust systems for reliable autonomous decision-making beyond standard LLM wrappers

What they're looking for

• Production-grade LLM systems experience
• TypeScript, Go, or Rust proficiency
• Systems thinking and architecture design
• Event-driven system development
• Context management and data optimization
• Deterministic system design
• Self-directed problem-solving in early-stage environments

Benefits

• $100k–$150k salary
• 1.5% equity as founding engineer
• Work with serial entrepreneurs (ex-LeanData CEO, 20+ year CTO)
• San Francisco location
• $3.5M funded startup
• Direct influence on technical architecture