Sign up to access all features of our service.
  • Job search
  • Favorites
  • Create a CV
    New
  • Salaries
  • Subscriptions

Founding AI/ML Engineer

$125k - $200k

David Joseph & Company

Job Description

Job Description

San Francisco, CA · New York City, NY · On-site · Full-time Compensation: $125,000–$200,000 + 0.3%–1% equity

About the Company

Our client helps law enforcement search evidence and solve crime. Police and prosecutors across the US use it to accelerate investigations into homicides, cold cases, and other major offenses by reducing digital evidence overload. The founding team includes engineers who have built national-scale government systems before, and the product is live with paying agency customers.

Founded 2025 · 1–10 people (Seed) · Industry: Public safety / law-enforcement AI

The Role

An early engineer role building the client's AI backbone — processing massive video, audio, and text datasets to surface investigative leads across backend infrastructure and applied ML.

Tech stack: Python, FastAPI, LangChain, PyTorch; LLM/VLM inference; distributed backend infrastructure.

Requirements
  • 4–6+ years of engineering experience, ideally 2+ in applied ML
  • Strong Python backend plus ML-ops familiarity (FastAPI, LangChain, PyTorch, etc.)
  • US work authorization and willingness to undergo an FBI background check
  • Deep technical communication skills — can explain systems and trade-offs clearly
  • Production experience deploying LLMs/VLMs or custom ML inference pipelines
  • Solid knowledge of scaling backend infrastructure (need not be an expert)
Nice to Haves
  • Built secure, distributed backend systems (Python/Go/TypeScript)
  • Demonstrated curiosity across both infrastructure and model-level work
  • Worked on real-time or high-throughput data systems
  • Prior early-stage or mission-driven startup experience
  • Combined SWE and data-engineering experience
Why Join
  • Mission with real weight: bring technical excellence to public safety, accelerating major-crime investigations for US police and prosecutors
  • Founding-level ownership: shape the AI backbone end to end, from data-flow design to production deployment, with a meaningful founding equity stake
  • Serious backing and traction: well-backed, with live deployments and paying agency customers already in production
Details
  • Location — San Francisco, CA · New York City, NY
  • Work policy — On-site
  • Compensation — $125,000–$200,000 + 0.3%–1% equity
  • Visa sponsorship — Not available; US work authorization required (FBI/CJIS clearance sponsored)
  • Employment type — Full-time
Vacancy posted 15 days ago
Similar jobs that could be interesting for youBased on the Founding AI/ML Engineer in San Francisco, CA vacancy
  • $125k - $200k

     ...solve crime. Police and prosecutors across the U.S. use our AI software to accelerate investigations into homicides, cold cases...  ...major offenses by reducing digital evidence overload. As a Founding AI/ML Engineer, the mission is clear: bring technical excellence to public... 
    Suggested

    Product Pulse

    San Francisco, CA
    3 days ago
  • $150k - $225k

     ...operating system for modern families. Most AI tools are designed for work life, but...  ...communities. The Role We’re looking for an Founding AI Engineer to design, build, and scale the...  ...Experience building and scaling data or ML pipelines in production environments Curiosity... 
    Suggested
    Full time
    Work from home
    Flexible hours

    Hellobabs

    San Francisco, CA
    5 days ago
  •  ...isn’t an experiment — it’s mission-critical. We’re building the AI co-pilot that will analyze flight data, interpret human...  ...feedback that makes pilots safer and more effective. As an AI/ML Engineer, you’ll design and deploy the machine learning systems that power... 
    Suggested
    Full time
    Weekend work

    Navi Ai

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  • $150k - $250k

     ...About Terranox Terranox is the first AI-powered uranium discovery company. Nuclear is the only clean, scalable, and baseload energy source...  ...short on uranium. We're addressing that by applying AI/ML to a discovery process that hasn't fundamentally changed in decades... 
    Suggested
    Full time
    Remote work

    Terranox AI

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $165k - $190k

     ...everyone deserves access to affordable and simple legal services. Founded in 2008, Rocket Lawyer is the largest and most widely used...  ...Rocket Lawyer is seeking an experienced, passionate AI/ML software engineer for Rocket Copilot, our new AI assistant launched in December... 
    Suggested
    Full time
    Work experience placement
    Worldwide

    Rocket Lawyer

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  •  ...For phase 1, we're training foundational AI models that create building code-compliant...  ...models, geometric and physics engines from scratch to transform how the world designs...  ...from raw 2D or spatial data using AI. As a Founding AI Engineer for Scan-to-BIM on our core AI... 
    Full time
    Visa sponsorship

    Augrade Private Limited

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  •  ...technology that works for them, not against them. Revic is an AI-native sales acceleration engine built to uplift sales professionals. We handle the...  ...GTM signal into company-wide execution. As Revic’s Founding GTM AI Engineer, you will work directly with Revic’s CEO... 
    Remote job
    Full time

    Revic

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  •  ...Founding AI Engineer We founded Bild AI to tackle the mess that is blueprint reading, cost estimation, and permit applications in construction...  ...improve them based on user feedback We want ~ Applied CV/ML experience ~0-to-1 builder, with your AI in production ~... 
    Full time
    Work at office
    Relocation

    Bild Ai

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  • $300k - $400k

     ...WE ARE  Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA) is the AI-Powered Marketing Cloud that leverages...  ...results for marketing programs. Zeta was founded in 2007 by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley...  ...Role Description   As a Principal AI/ML Engineer in our AdTech team, you will be a key... 
    Full time

    Zeta Global

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  •  ...About Kastle Kastle is building AI operating system for consumer lending, starting...  ...with AI. About the Role As a Founding Applied AI Engineer, you'll be instrumental in building the...  ...For ~2+ years building and deploying ML/AI systems in production environments... 
    Full time
    Live in
    Relocation package

    Kastle

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  • $308k - $423.5k

     ...join ours. About this role: We are seeking a  Principal ML / AI Engineer to be a  company-level technical thought leader and...  ...their dreams. Every member of our team is taking part in the founding process. We are using technology and data to level the playing... 
    Full time
    Work experience placement
    Work at office
    Local area
    Remote work
    Monday to Friday
    Flexible hours
    3 days per week

    Faire Faire

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  •  ...At Middleware — one of the fastest-growing AI observability platforms — we're looking for a talented and experienced AI/ML founding engineer to join our team. You'll play a key role in building AI on our observability platform to detect and fix issues automatically. In... 

    Middleware, Inc.

    San Francisco, CA
    1 day ago
  •  ...mission to build real-life JARVIS — a personal AI that can do everything a human assistant...  ...is growing extremely fast. Come join our founding team in San Francisco as one of our first...  ...we’d love to hear from you! Founding AI Engineer We are looking for a founding AI engineer... 
    Relocation

    Martin (YC S23)

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $150k - $220k

     ...Optimized deploys AI agents into the operations that run the physical economy: the factory floors, foundries, and procurement...  ...runs reliably in production is the hardest part, and we need a founding engineer to own it. As a Founding AI Engineer, you'll architect the platform... 

    Optimized, Inc.

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $130k - $170k

     ...Founding AI Engineer Join to apply for the Founding AI Engineer role at Nowadays (YC S23) Base pay range: $130,000.00/yr - $170,000.00/yr The...  ...understand pain points and ship AI features that matter Shape our AI/ML architecture and practices from the ground up What You’ll... 

    Nowadays (YC S23)

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  • $120k - $200k

     ...0.5‑2% Equity + Flexible PTO Are you an AI engineer who wants to build and own the core agentic...  ...whilst benefiting from full autonomy and founding‑level equity? This is a rare opportunity...  ...engineering experience with focus on AI/ML systems Strong proficiency in Python and... 
    Full time
    Immediate start
    Flexible hours

    Rise Technical

    San Francisco, CA
    1 day ago
  •  ...crawled information on Google via point and click to AI agents doing real-time targeted crawling from sources...  ...need someone who can push the boundaries of what our ML systems can do. We’re hiring a Founding ML Engineer to own the research and engineering behind our core intelligence... 
    Shift work

    Crustdata

    San Francisco, CA
    2 days ago
  • $200k - $280k

     ...A leading voice AI startup is seeking a Founding Senior Machine Learning Engineer to fine-tune and deploy human-like voice agents, handling millions of real-time calls...  ...should have real-world experience in deploying ML models and work well in a fast-paced environment.... 

    Retell AI

    San Francisco, CA
    1 day ago
  • $200k - $250k

     ...Founding ML Engineer - Anthropic Backed Startup $200,000 - $250,000 + Founding Team Equity Most ML roles ask you to fine-tune someone else's idea. This one asks you to build the thing that changes how professionals work entirely. Backed by Anthropic. The problem is hard... 
    Internship
    Work at office

    Runtime

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  •  ...platform for understanding and improving how engineering teams work. We believe the way...  ...is fundamentally broken and that modern AI can give teams a far more accurate and actionable...  ...to accelerate our growth. As Weave’s Founding ML Engineer , your job is to build ML... 
    Work at office

    Weave

    San Francisco, CA
    2 days ago
  • $150k - $300k

    An early-stage AI data company that went from zero to $7M ARR in...  ...the web. You will own the ML systems that turn that raw, multilingual...  ...Own the full ML research and engineering cycle, from prototype to...  ...role with a direct path toward founding something of your own. #J-188... 

    Open Select

    San Francisco, CA
    4 days ago
  •  ...About the role Our client is a well-funded AI startup building production-grade ML infrastructure used by enterprise customers. They are looking for a Senior AI/ML Engineer to own model training pipelines, evaluation systems, and inference serving at scale. Full-time... 
    Full time

    Clera

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  •  ...Who We Are Citizen Health was founded on the belief — shaped by...  .... By uniquely combining data, AI, and community, Citizen is building...  ...seeking AI/Machine Learning Engineers to lead the development and deployment...  ..., and deployment Implement ML systems that can effectively... 
    Full time
    Flexible hours

    Citizen Health

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  • Do you want to work at the intersection of AI, product, engineering, and real -world operations? \ \ Join a fast -growing technology startup building intelligent systems that optimize workflows, improve efficiency and implement AI for operations in industrial environments... 
    Full time
    Immediate start

    Eth Juniors

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  • $175k - $300k

     ...About Trove Trove is developing an AI associate for financial firms - think enterprise search & agents...  .... High talent density: Be a part of a great founding team in SF. Shivaal Roy (CTO) was a founding engineer at Glean ($100M+ ARR today) and managed the Assistant... 
    Full time

    Trove

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  •  ...the company We’re a team of engineers, neuroscientists, and designers...  ...brain-computer interfaces and AI, join us. We’re backed by...  ...We’re building a generational founding team which is truly full-stack...  ...considered) ~3+ years of applied ML research or development... 
    Full time

    Orbit Neuro Co.

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  •  ...About the Role We're looking for founding Machine Learning Engineers (MLEs) to own and improve our core action...  ...auth barriers, or consumer-focused "AI browsers," we run AI directly through...  ...friction. This architecture creates unique ML challenges. This is a high-... 
    Full time
    Sleeping nights

    Composite

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  • $55 per hour

     ...legacy stack to inherit — you'll be setting the direction for how we do modeling, data engineering, and production ML at Wholesail for years to come. The Role ⚒️ As the founding MLE on the Risk Engineering & Capital Products team, you'll own credit risk modeling... 
    Full time
    Temporary work
    Work at office
    Local area

    Wholesail

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago
  • $150k - $200k

     ...agentic web — turning intent into action by giving AI agents a dependable way to reach businesses,...  ...this is the third — a web built for agents. It was founded by experienced payments operators paired with a founding engineer from a major search team, and is positioned as... 
    Full time
    H1b
    Visa sponsorship

    David Joseph & Company

    San Francisco, CA
    2 days ago
  •  ...What we’re looking for We’re looking for an AI/ML Engineer with 5–8 years of experience building and owning production AI and ML systems used by real people. You’re comfortable working across, modern LLM agentic systems, traditional ML, and you’ve shipped systems with... 
    Full time

    Paraform

    San Francisco, CA
    7 hours ago

Do you want to receive more vacancies?

Subscribe and receive similar vacancies to Founding AI/ML Engineer. Be the first to apply!