Founding Engineer
$250kDex
Founding Engineer (San Francisco Startups | up to $250k+ + equity) Salary: Total compensation up to $250,000+ plus meaningful equity Dex is an intelligent recruiter that helps you run your job search. Tell Dex about your experience, what you want to build or solve, and your non-negotiables — we only surface the handful of roles genuinely worth your time, and manage the applications on your behalf. San Francisco has no shortage of startups calling every hire a founding engineer. The seats worth taking are rarer: real ownership, founders you'd back, and a company early enough that your fingerprints end up on everything. We work with these founders directly and know what they're building and how they're funded, so the roles we show you have already passed the filter you'd want to apply yourself. The opportunities Compensation at these companies can reach $250k+, with equity that's meant to matter. You'd be among the first engineers in the building — owning whole domains from architecture to ship, working in the room with the founders, and setting the standards everyone hired after you inherits. Early-stage pace, with backing serious enough to build properly. You could work on Building the product from the ground up with the founders Owning entire domains end-to-end, architecture through to ship Setting the engineering culture and standards from day one Wearing whatever hat the week requires, and shaping what gets built You may have Strong generalist engineering and a builder's instinct Comfort with ambiguity and an early-stage pace The appetite for the whole problem, not a slice of it Prior founding or early-startup experience — a bonus, not a requirement Why apply through Dex? We put you in front of the right founders with a proper introduction, not a cold application — and you stay in control of what moves forward. As part of the recruitment process at Dex, we process your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice for Job Applicants. This notice explains how and why your data is collected and used, and how you can contact us if you have any concerns. #J-18808-Ljbffr Dex
- Peregrine Technologies is seeking a founding member of the Business Technologies team in San Francisco to design scalable internal infrastructure, not just modify existing systems. You’ll be the second hire, partnering with the TPM Lead to define architecture across identity...Suggested
- 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
- Peregrine Technologies in San Francisco is seeking a founding member of the Business Technologies team. You will design internal infrastructure... ...IT, Security, and business teams. The role emphasizes an engineering-first approach, IaC, and cross-functional collaboration to...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
- Peregrine Technologies is building the core internal platform to automate and scale IT operations. This founding role focuses on architecting and delivering infrastructure with emphasis on identity, SaaS, and cloud integrations. You will work directly with IT, Security...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...
$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...Full time- ...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
$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$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$130k - $170k
A tech-driven event planning company seeks a Founding Engineer to manage full-stack development and enhance their AI platform. The ideal candidate has experience in modern frameworks and exhibits adaptability in dynamic settings. Responsibilities include expanding the venue...- 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...
- 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...
- 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...
- Truss is a regulated fintech company seeking the founding head of risk to design and lead the risk program. The role requires building production risk systems, rules engines, and decisioning platforms to catch fraud, abuse, and loss in production. You will own end-to-end...
- Founding Robotics Software Engineer Location: San Francisco (preferred) / US Type: Full-time · Founding Team About Bracket Bot Bracket Bot is building low-cost, general-purpose robots that developers can program and deploy in days. We’re transforming the world’s ~50...Full time
- A healthcare AI software startup is seeking a Founding Sales Engineer to join its early go-to-market team in San Francisco. This role will bridge go-to-market and engineering teams, focusing on customizing demos and sales enablement. The ideal candidate will have 5-15 years...Full time
- ...startup, revolutionizing the computing landscape, is looking to hire a Principal Product and Application Security Engineer to join their team as a founding engineer. This startup has hit a $1B valuation, closed their Series A funding, and has been around for 4 years. They...Full time
$129.5k - $145k
...We help companies thrive in the new AI-first era of business. Founded in 2005, Box simplifies work for leading global organizations,... ...looking for an experienced and driven GRC Controls Automation Engineer who is looking to put their demonstrated awareness of regulatory...Live inWork at officeShift work3 days per week$7.5k
...Job Description Job Description Founding Engineer - GovTech Location: San Francisco, CA (In-Office) Partnership: EQL Tech has been exclusively retained by a high-growth technology startup to appoint a Founding Engineer to build, from close to zero, the infrastructure...Work at officeRelocationVisa sponsorshipRelocation package$180k
The Role We're hiring a Founding Engineer to join an early‑stage company building AI‑powered software and data infrastructure for healthcare organizations operating in highly regulated, data‑intensive environments. This is a foundational engineering hire. You'll work directly...Work experience placement$120k - $180k
Founding Engineer - Staff/Senior Location: San Francisco, CA Type: Full-time, In-person Flowtel is building the next-generation operating system for hospitality, powered by modern AI agents that can handle everything from booking to room service. We just launched, secured...Full time- ...platform that turns your website into your company's main growth engine. We deploy swarms of marketing and web design agents that... ...companies the on‑demand infrastructure of a growth team. Ploy is founded by Bryant Chou, the co‑founder and former CTO of Webflow, where...
$100k - $300k
Engineering HybridFull-time Founding Engineer Full-stack product engineer who helps us build the AI platform for engineering consulting firms — agents that own entire professional workflows, starting with proposals. Location: San Francisco (Hybrid) Type: Full-time...Full timeLive inWork at office$150k - $250k
AgentMail is building the identity and communication infrastructure for AI agents, starting with email. We are looking for a Founding Engineer with backend and infra focus to architect systems for agents as the end users. Responsibilities Design APIs that are intuitive...Work experience placementInternship$100k - $200k
.... Learn more at voicecursor.ai. Role Description This is a full-time, on-site role based in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a Founding Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the technical foundation of Voice Cursor. Your day-to-day responsibilities will include...Full time10 hours per weekFlexible hours- ...to automate the repetitive work currently handled manually across emails, spreadsheets and legacy systems. They are hiring a Founding Engineer to work directly with the founders and customers, understand how these businesses operate and build the product from first conversation...
$200k
...of products for private market investing. As a Senior Software Engineer on Meridian, you’ll own the technical design and delivery of... ...and sequencing tradeoffs through launch and iteration. This is a founding engineer role on a zero-to-one product with meaningful distribution...Work at office2 days per week$350k
...conversations consistent and personalized across all channels. Reverse engineering legacy healthcare systems that don’t have public APIs to... ...who desperately need them. We’re looking for exceptional founding engineers to help us realize this ambition. If you’re an engineer...Contract workNight shift$120k - $170k
EQL Tech (frontier talent) is seeking a Founding GTM Engineer to architect growth for the $900B school choice movement, based in San Francisco or Phoenix. This role demands 3-6 years of consumer growth experience and a strong academic background, focusing on building community...Relocation package
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