Founding Software Engineer

Experience: 4–8 Years

Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent

Company Stage: Early-Stage, High-Growth Technology Startup

The Opportunity

We're partnering with an ambitious, venture-backed AI startup looking for an exceptional Founding Software Engineer to help build the next generation of intelligent software.

This isn't another engineering job where you'll spend your days working through tickets, maintaining legacy code, or waiting for someone else to make decisions.

This is an opportunity to join at the ground floor, work directly with the founders, own critical technical decisions, and build products that could define an entirely new category.

You'll have the autonomy of a founder, the technical challenges of a world-class engineering organization, and the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the company's technology, culture, and direction.

We're looking for a true builder. Someone who has shipped exceptional products, thrives in ambiguity, and takes personal responsibility for turning ambitious ideas into production-ready software.

What You'll Own

• Architect, develop, and launch innovative software products from concept through production.
• Build sophisticated full-stack applications, scalable backend services, and AI-powered features.
• Work directly with founders to influence product strategy, technical architecture, and engineering priorities.
• Develop and integrate LLM-powered applications, intelligent agents, and automated workflows.
• Make critical architectural decisions around infrastructure, databases, APIs, and system scalability.
• Own the complete software development lifecycle, including design, implementation, deployment, and production reliability.
• Move quickly, experiment intelligently, and deliver high-quality solutions without unnecessary layers of management.
• Help establish the engineering standards, technical foundation, and culture as the company scales.

What We're Looking For

Required Qualifications

• 4–8 years of professional software engineering experience, with significant hands-on experience building production software.
• Strong full-stack engineering capabilities, ideally with TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, Python, or similar technologies.
• Experience designing backend systems, APIs, relational databases, and scalable application architectures.
• Demonstrated experience owning substantial engineering projects from initial concept through production deployment.
• Strong product instincts and the ability to translate ambiguous business challenges into elegant technical solutions.
• Experience in fast-paced product engineering environments, preferably venture-backed startups.
• A proven record of shipping meaningful products and maintaining them in production.
• Strong problem-solving skills, technical judgment, and the ability to work independently.
• Excellent communication skills and the confidence to collaborate directly with founders and business stakeholders.

Career Background Requirements

We're intentionally selective about the type of engineer who will succeed in this position.

• Seeking candidates with a demonstrated history of long-term commitment and meaningful ownership within their previous organizations.
• Strong preference for engineers who have spent approximately two or more years in substantive engineering positions and can clearly explain their contributions.
• This opportunity is designed for engineers pursuing a long-term, permanent position, not consulting, freelance, or fractional engagements.
• Candidates whose experience is primarily short-term consulting or project-based contracting are not the target profile.
• We value consistent career progression, sustained technical ownership, and a history of seeing products through multiple stages of growth.
• Multiple unexplained short tenures may be a concern. Relevant context, including company closures, layoffs, and acquisitions, will be considered.

What Will Set You Apart

• Experience as a founding engineer or an early engineering hire at a successful startup.
• A track record of building zero-to-one products with real customers and measurable adoption.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs, AI agents, retrieval systems, orchestration frameworks, or AI-native applications.
• Previous experience building and scaling products at Seed through Series B companies.
• Evidence of exceptional technical ownership, including architectural decisions and production systems you personally built.
• A strong GitHub portfolio, independently launched products, or meaningful open-source contributions.
• Experience working directly with customers and using their feedback to influence product development.
• A builder's mindset: you identify problems, take initiative, and ship solutions without waiting for instructions.

Why This Opportunity Stands Out

True Founding-Level Ownership

You'll help define the technical foundation of the company rather than simply contributing to an established codebase.

Direct Access to Leadership

Work alongside ambitious founders, influence major decisions, and have a meaningful voice in the company's direction.

High-Impact Engineering

Build sophisticated products involving modern software architecture, AI technologies, and real-world customer challenges.

Speed and Autonomy

No endless approval chains. No unnecessary bureaucracy. You'll have the freedom to build, experiment, and ship.

Long-Term Career Opportunity

Join at a formative stage, grow with the business, and potentially take on significant technical leadership responsibilities as the engineering organization expands.

Potential Equity Upside

Early-stage opportunities may offer meaningful equity participation, depending on the company's compensation structure.

Who Will Thrive Here?

This role is for an engineer who wants more than a paycheck or another impressive company name on their resume.

It's for someone who wants to build something exceptional, take ownership of difficult technical challenges, and look back years from now knowing they helped create the foundation of a successful technology company.

We're looking for engineers who are ambitious, technically exceptional, product-minded, and committed to building for the long term.

If you've been waiting for the opportunity to build like a founder, influence like a technical leader, and ship like an exceptional individual contributor, this is the role worth exploring.