Location: San Francisco, CA, US

On-site | Full-time

Compensation: $150K - $200K | 0.10% – 0.25% Equity

Our client is a high-growth, YC-backed startup based in San Francisco that is developing the definitive platform for understanding and improving engineering team dynamics. By leveraging modern AI, the organization provides an accurate and actionable view of productivity, impact, and collaboration—moving beyond traditional vanity metrics to focus on high-quality engineering outcomes.

Having secured a $4.2M seed round from top-tier investors and delivering consistent double-digit month-over-month revenue growth, our client is now hiring a Founding AI Engineer. This role is a rare opportunity to join at the ground floor and develop the core AI systems that will shape how millions of engineers and leaders understand their work. The successful candidate will work directly with the CTO (an MIT alum and former founding engineer) and the CEO (a former executive who has scaled multiple sales teams to $30M ARR).

Key Responsibilities

• AI System Architecture: Build and scale the AI infrastructure designed to analyze how engineers work, surfacing insights that go beyond simple code shipments.
• Process Establishment: Develop the internal processes and standards for AI development, ensuring that incremental features and subsequent models are easier to build and deploy.
• Product Innovation: Partner with the founders to rethink engineering output from first principles, focusing on productivity, quality, and collaboration without resorting to surveillance or vanity metrics.
• Feature Development: Translate complex trade data and engineering activity into actionable intelligence that makes the end-user's job significantly more efficient.
• End-to-End Execution: Take ownership of features from ideation to production in a small, intense, and highly collaborative team environment.

Core Competencies

• Technical Excellence: A "formidable" engineering mindset with a "stop at nothing" approach to problem-solving. Our client prioritizes a candidate's growth trajectory and adaptability over a static list of current skills.
• Pragmatism: The ability to operate effectively in a startup environment, distinguishing between critical issues and minor distractions.
• AI/ML Foundation: A strong technical background with the ability to ship production-grade AI features.
• Empathy: A deep understanding of user psychology and a genuine desire to help software engineering teams excel.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, essential for a product that interacts with millions of technical leaders.
• Resilience: A gritty approach to engineering, with a habit of choosing the more challenging, high-impact path when necessary.
• Eligibility: Must be a US citizen or hold a valid US work visa.

Technical Preferences (Nice-to-Have)

• Experience with Go (Backend), Python (ML), or React + TypeScript (Frontend).
• Prior experience or deep interest in engineering productivity and organizational health.
• Passable design sensibilities.

Benefits

• Compensation: Competitive base salary of $150,000 – $200,000.
• Equity: Founding-member equity stake of 0.10% – 0.25%.
• Mentorship: Direct access to founders with a proven track record in scaling successful ventures and building complex products.
• Impact: High levels of autonomy and the ability to shape the technical foundation of a rapidly growing startup.
• Environment: Collaborative in-person culture based in San Francisco, CA.

Interview Process

1. Introductory Call: A 15-minute initial screen.
2. Assessment: A take-home technical assignment.
3. Technical Interview: A one-hour technical deep-dive with the CTO.
4. Executive Interview: A one-hour on-site interview with the CEO, including a team lunch.
5. Work Trial: A 3-5 day paid work trial to ensure mutual alignment.