Founding AI Engineer
$230k - $300kRecruiting from Scratch
Who is Recruiting from Scratch: Recruiting from Scratch is a specialized talent firm dedicated to helping companies build exceptional teams. We partner closely with our clients to deeply understand their needs, then connect them with top-tier candidates who are not only highly skilled but also the right fit for the company's culture and vision. Our mission is simple: place the best people in the right roles to drive long-term success for both clients and candidates. Title of Role: Founding AI Engineer (Agentic Systems / Full-Stack)
Location: San Francisco, CA
Company Stage of Funding: Seed Stage (~$7.5M raised)
Office Type: Hybrid (3-4 days/week in office)
Salary: $230,000 - $300,000 + Equity
Company Description Our client is an early-stage, venture-backed AI startup building the next generation of "AI coworkers"-autonomous systems that can own and execute entire business workflows end-to-end. Unlike traditional AI tools that assist users, their platform is designed to replace operational work by orchestrating multi-step processes across systems. Founded by experienced operators who previously scaled enterprise teams at leading AI companies, the company is working with top-tier design partners and is rapidly building out its founding engineering team to define this new category.
What You Will Do
This is a rare opportunity to join at the ground floor of an AI-native company building autonomous systems that fundamentally change how work gets done.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Company Stage of Funding: Seed Stage (~$7.5M raised)
Office Type: Hybrid (3-4 days/week in office)
Salary: $230,000 - $300,000 + Equity
Company Description Our client is an early-stage, venture-backed AI startup building the next generation of "AI coworkers"-autonomous systems that can own and execute entire business workflows end-to-end. Unlike traditional AI tools that assist users, their platform is designed to replace operational work by orchestrating multi-step processes across systems. Founded by experienced operators who previously scaled enterprise teams at leading AI companies, the company is working with top-tier design partners and is rapidly building out its founding engineering team to define this new category.
What You Will Do
- Build core agentic systems that automate complex business workflows end-to-end
- Design and implement multi-step AI agents with memory, reasoning, and orchestration
- Work across the full stack (frontend, backend, and infrastructure) to ship product features
- Partner directly with founders and customers to define product direction
- Solve hard problems around reliability, hallucination, and system trust at scale
- Build integrations across enterprise tools (CRM, communication, and workflow systems)
- Own product surfaces from concept to production deployment
- Help define engineering standards, architecture, and team culture as a founding member
- 3-10 years of software engineering experience
- Proven experience building production AI systems (agents, not just RAG/chatbots)
- Strong proficiency across the stack (backend + frontend as needed)
- Experience working in early-stage startups or high-ambiguity environments
- Deep understanding of LLM limitations (hallucination, state, reliability) and mitigation strategies
- Strong product mindset with ability to define and build solutions end-to-end
- High ownership, strong opinions, and ability to operate independently
- Experience building multi-agent or autonomous systems with real-world impact
- Experience at top-tier AI or product-first companies (e.g., OpenAI, Scale AI, Notion, Retool)
- Background as a founder or early engineering hire
- Experience with workflow orchestration systems or event-driven architectures
- Familiarity with GTM tools (Salesforce, Slack, Outreach, etc.)
- Strong academic background in Computer Science or related field
- Competitive base salary: $230,000 - $300,000
- Founding-level equity: ~0.5% - 5% (depending on experience)
- High ownership and direct impact on company trajectory
- Work directly with experienced founders from top AI companies
- Opportunity to define a new category in AI (agentic workflow automation)
- Hybrid work in San Francisco with a small, high-caliber team
- Fast, founder-led hiring process
This is a rare opportunity to join at the ground floor of an AI-native company building autonomous systems that fundamentally change how work gets done.
Vacancy posted 3 days ago
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