Founding Engineer
$130k - $200kAmadeus Search
Founding Engineer - Full Stack (AI x Developer Tools) Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid - 4 days/week in person)
Compensation: $130,000 - $200,000 base
Equity: 0.10% - 1.75%
Work Authorization: Open to visa sponsorship in exceptional cases
Type: Full-time
Start Date: ASAP
Why This Role is Different
What You'll Do
This is more than a job-it's a chance to build a flagship devtools product with the potential to redefine how designers and engineers collaborate. If you want to help shape the next generation of human-computer creativity, we'd love to meet you.
Compensation: $130,000 - $200,000 base
Equity: 0.10% - 1.75%
Work Authorization: Open to visa sponsorship in exceptional cases
Type: Full-time
Start Date: ASAP
Why This Role is Different
- One of the top-performing recent startups from a leading accelerator batch
- Massive open-source traction and organic developer adoption
- Design-obsessed, high-velocity founding team with deep product intuition
- Real equity upside, with strong early attention from strategic partners and acquirers
- An opportunity to help define the product, culture, and architecture from day one
What You'll Do
- Design and implement key product features across the frontend and backend
- Build DOM-based visual editing experiences with pixel-level polish
- Integrate AI models into real-time creative workflows
- Own infrastructure decisions for cloud execution, performance, and reliability
- Set engineering standards and culture as a true founding contributor
- 4+ years of software engineering experience with strong end-to-end product ownership
- Startup experience, with exposure to fast-paced, zero-to-one environments
- Excellent frontend skills (React, TypeScript, TailwindCSS) with a product mindset
- Experience with backend systems using Node and cloud execution frameworks
- Familiarity with AI tooling, LLM integrations, or model fine-tuning (a strong plus)
- Strong GitHub or portfolio with open-source or personal projects
- High agency: can operate autonomously and move quickly
- Intensity and care: you work with urgency and high attention to detail
- Design empathy: you care about UX and product quality deeply
- Opinionated with experience: you've made hard architecture calls and lived with the results
- Builder DNA: you've shipped tools, not just written specs
- Repeated short tenures without clear justification
- Low energy, low ownership attitude
- Inflated resumes without demonstrated depth
- Weak communication or lack of feedback fluency
This is more than a job-it's a chance to build a flagship devtools product with the potential to redefine how designers and engineers collaborate. If you want to help shape the next generation of human-computer creativity, we'd love to meet you.
Vacancy posted 1 day ago
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