Founding Engineer
Venture Up
Founding Engineer: Build the Email Infrastructure for AI Agents What happens when millions of AI agents need their own email addresses? We're not talking about adding AI to Gmail — we're talking about rebuilding email infrastructure specifically for a world where AI agents communicate, authenticate and operate autonomously. A fast-growing, $6M-funded startup in San Francisco is building exactly that: an API-first email platform that lets developers create and manage inboxes for AI agents at scale. They're looking for a backend-leaning Founding Engineer to join the early team and help build the core infrastructure from the ground up. What You'll Do: Build Infrastructure for AI Agents – Design the APIs and backend systems agents use to communicate, authenticate and interact with the real world. Own 0→1 Projects – Take major projects from idea through system design to production, from IMAP integrations to usage-based pricing infrastructure. Solve Hard Backend Problems – Work across distributed systems, databases, developer tooling and email protocols while processing hundreds of thousands of emails every day. Shape the Product – Work directly with customers, propose new products and growth experiments, and help determine what the company builds next. What They're Looking For: 0–5 years of software engineering experience, with flexibility for exceptional candidates outside this range. Strong backend engineering skills and experience shipping production software at a leading tech company or high-growth startup. Evidence you've built things from 0→1 and can independently own projects end-to-end. Comfortable working across the stack when required, although the role is approximately 80% backend. Excited by early-stage startups, high ownership and building directly alongside a founding team. Why Join? 0.5–1% founding-team equity Five days per week in San Francisco, building alongside a small, ambitious team. $6M raised to build a new category of infrastructure for the rapidly growing AI agent ecosystem. This isn't about putting an AI assistant inside an existing email product. It's about building the underlying email infrastructure that AI agents themselves will use — and joining early enough to shape how that infrastructure gets built. #J-18808-Ljbffr Venture Up
- Peregrine Technologies is seeking a founding member for its Business Technologies team in San Francisco. You will help design internal infrastructure, automate IT workflows, and scale platforms across identity, SaaS, and cloud environments. You will partner with IT, Security...Suggested
- ...Description Join Hire Hangar and work with fast-growing global companies while building a long-term career. Job Title| Founding Systems Engineer (Performance) Location | On-Site — San Francisco, CA Time Zone | PST Role Overview: We are seeking a Founding...Suggested
- ...Description Join Hire Hangar and work with fast-growing global companies while building a long-term career. Job Title: Founding Production Systems Engineer Location | On-Site — San Francisco, CA Time Zone | PST Role Overview: We are seeking a Founding...Suggested
- Hivemind is building a social AI that talks to many people at once, with one-on-one conversations. We are seeking founding members of technical staff to co-own the foundation from day zero and shape the team as it grows. You will define technical standards, build core...Suggested
$150k - $200k
...About the Company Our client is a seed-stage aviation-AI company (founded 2024, roughly five people today) building an in-cockpit... ...cockpit product. You'll work directly with the CTO and lead software engineer, be deeply hands-on, and make consequential architecture and...SuggestedFull time- ...science and manufacturing that isn't possible on Earth, and we're doing it without humans in the loop. We're looking for a Founding Mechanical Engineer to own the design and development of our robotic arm from concept through flight-ready hardware. This is a high-...Permanent employment
- ...role offers greater autonomy and closer collaboration with the founding team than other positions. Required Qualifications Strong... ...enrolled or finished MS or PhD in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related quantitative field Domain...Full timeLocal areaRelocation
$250k - $380k
Base pay range $250-380k Needl Owner - Helping tech startups scale Founding Hardware Engineer (Stealth Robotics Startup) About Us We’re a tiny, fast-moving team building autonomous systems for heavy industrial machines. We retrofit existing equipment with a plug-and-...Full timeLive outRemote workVisa sponsorshipRelocation package- ...Visa sponsorship: None available. About the Role: This is a founding hardware role, and the person who fills it owns the physical... ...hire joins the technical side alongside the CTO and lead software engineer as one of the first ten employees. The role requires someone...Full timeVisa sponsorship
- Orchard is building an entirely new way for farmers to understand and operate their farms. As Orchard's Founding Design Engineer, you will establish the design function and own design across product, brand, marketing, software engineering, hardware, and our physical environments...
- ...scalable internal platform on the Business Technologies team. As a founding member, you will define how infrastructure is built, automated... ...rather than just respond to tickets. The role emphasizes an engineering-first approach: workflow automation, system integrations, and...
$500 per month
...DESCRIPTIONThis company handles millions of calls per month and needs an engineer who has worked at that scale before and knows how to build... ...sub-100 milliseconds.You will work on-site directly with the founding team, contributing across architecture, infrastructure, and...H1b- Oho Group is seeking a Founding Mechanical Engineer in San Francisco to lead the design, build, and testing of complex hardware systems. This position requires a Bachelor's degree in a related field and hands-on experience with hardware development, with responsibilities...
- Pax Historia in San Francisco seeks a founding engineer to help shape the future of interactive entertainment. You’ll craft AI-driven workflows powering worldbuilders, storytellers, and game devs to create and publish speculative scenarios. This hands-on role from day one...Visa sponsorship
$150k - $240k
10x Science, based in San Francisco, is looking for a founding engineer to contribute to a high-performance computing platform for AI-powered drug discovery. You'll join a small team and work directly with the founders, taking on significant responsibilities from day one...- ...a YC S25-backed startup, is building a replayable environment engine over real enterprise history and deploying it within modern workflows... ...you can be proud of for decades. Join us as we scale from founding team to deployment across enterprises. #J-18808-Ljbffr Ambral...
$130k - $200k
Join us to apply for the Founding Engineer (Systems + ML) role at Partcl . Get AI-powered advice on this job and more exclusive features. This range is provided by Partcl. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more...Full time- A cutting-edge AI startup in San Francisco is seeking a Founding Engineer with 4+ years of backend experience. You will design and scale backend systems, mentor junior engineers, and tackle technical challenges in the food-tech space. Ideal candidates will have deep expertise...
- Career Launch is seeking an India Founding Engineer (Computer Vision) who can move quickly in ambiguous environments, delivering clear engineering execution, strong communication, and solid analytical judgment across research, prototyping, and production. This posting is...
- Physical AI in San Francisco is building models and tooling to accelerate hardware design. The founding engineering team will own core architecture and productionize physics-informed models on real boards. You will shape the tech stack, integrate with engineers' tools,...Visa sponsorship
- A pioneering robotics company is seeking a Founding Mechanical Engineer in San Francisco, CA. You will design and develop robotic arms for microgravity environments, leading all aspects from concept to flight-ready hardware. Essential qualifications include a Bachelor'...
$150k - $200k
...About the Role This is the first full-time engineering hire outside the founding team at an early-stage AI/ML startup building tools that automatically detect failures in agent conversations and generate the patches to fix them. You'll own the entire loop — from data...Full timeVisa sponsorship$100k - $180k
...About the Role This is a founding engineering role at an early-stage construction technology startup using AI to automate blueprint analysis, material takeoffs, and cost estimation. You'll be a core member of a small team, shaping both the product and the engineering...Full time$120k - $250k
...About the Role This is a founding engineering role at a YC-backed enterprise AI startup building an agentic operating system that deploys AI agents at scale for businesses. You'll operate with CTO-level ownership — taking vague problems from user insight all the way...Full time- ...distributors, embedding AI into quoting, agreements, pricing, freight, order processing and ERP-driven tasks. You will join as a Founding Engineer, working directly with the founders and customers to take product ideas from first conversations through production deployment...
- A technology company in San Francisco is seeking a Founding Fullstack Engineer to build scalable systems that automate complex decisions in manufacturing. Ideal candidates will have experience with data-driven agents, strong product sense, and the ability to ship production...Relocation
- Moritz, an AI-native law firm backed by YC, is hiring a Founding Engineer in San Francisco. You will join as a hands-on leader responsible for product building, scaling the team, and shaping engineering processes from day one. You will ship critical features, own delivery...
$285k - $315k
San Francisco Tensor Company is looking for a Founding GPU Compiler Engineer to be instrumental in building the core compilation infrastructure for AI workloads. This role involves designing compilation pipelines and optimizing for various GPU architectures. Join a passionate...- Trajectory, based in San Francisco, is seeking a Founding Generalist Engineer to craft the product experience for continual learning. The role involves owning the SDK and API surfaces while working directly with founders and industry-leading partners. Ideal candidates...
$250k - $380k
A stealth robotics startup in San Francisco seeks a Founding Hardware Engineer to design and build autonomy systems for heavy industrial machines. Ideal candidates will have a proven ability to prototype hardware from scratch and thrive in fast-paced environments. Key...
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