Product Engineer ($250K–$500K) at Y Combinator

About this role

Y Combinator seeks a full-stack Product Engineer to build operational systems for their startup accelerator, including admissions pipelines, Demo Day infrastructure, and internal tools. You'll own the complete product lifecycle independently, leveraging AI-native development practices to streamline complex workflows supporting thousands of founders.

What you'll do

• Design and deploy full-stack applications for admissions pipeline with semantic search and LLM-driven automation
• Build and scale Demo Day digital infrastructure including registration and investor coordination
• Identify manual bottlenecks with YC partners and develop custom internal automation tools
• Own entire product lifecycle from UI design to backend architecture without PM or design support
• Integrate LLMs and vector databases into production environments
• Support high-stakes operational complexity for 5,000+ portfolio companies

What they're looking for

• Full-stack web development
• AI-enabled development tools (Cursor, Copilot)
• LLM and vector database integration
• Product thinking and design sensibility
• Backend architecture and system design
• Semantic search and NLP applications
• Event infrastructure and scaling
• Rapid prototyping and shipping

Benefits

• Salary $250K–$500K with profit-sharing structure
• Total product ownership and autonomy
• Work with elite 18-person engineering team
• Direct impact on global startup ecosystem
• High-trust, fast-moving environment
• San Francisco location