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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- ...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-...SuggestedPermanent 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$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...
- 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...
- ...tl;dr: This is a 1 of 1 role. We're looking for a founding engineer to work alongside a Thiel Fellow founder as employee #1 - with 5X more equity than most "founding engineers". About Empathic “…but I tell you all today, I would rather die a man than live for all eternity...InternshipWork at office
- ...previously built and exited companies and held senior product and engineering roles at Meta, Airbnb, and Canva. The throughline across... ...infrastructure that bigger players take for granted. The role As Founding Engineer, you’ll build the technical foundation of that...Night shiftWeekend work
$100k - $200k
...innovation. 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...Full time10 hours per weekFlexible hours- ...Weave At Weave, we're building the best software for the best engineering teams to move faster, and we want to hire exceptional sales... ...Andrew runs engineering at Weave, and before that worked as the founding engineer at Causal. Responsibilities Build pipeline:...Flexible hours
- ...manufacturing, and we're building fast. The Role This is a founding growth role, and it is not a traditional marketing job. You... ...with business acumen on top: you'll treat go-to-market as an engineering problem, building scalable, tech-enabled outreach systems rather...
$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- ...to work through secure agents that execute complex workflows across sourcing, supplier management, and supply-chain risk. As a Founding Engineer, you will build the systems that let enterprise teams trust an agent with high-stakes procurement work. You will structure...
- ...researcher who has spent his entire career in enterprise AI, leading engineering teams from seed through Series C. The broader team includes... .... We hold a high bar of excellence that starts with the founding team. Background Deploying truly impactful AI Agents today requires...
- ...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...
$250k
...transferred to us in real time. The company is bootstrapped and founded by a former startup and venture capital attorney. Sixteen... ...percent reply rate. About the Role This is the company’s first engineering hire, reporting directly to the Founder, who is currently the...Full timeCasual workWork at officeImmediate startRemote workRelocation- ...career-defining impact ~ Visa sponsorship As a founding member, you'll help define the technical foundation of NeoSigma... ...core systems end-to-end to shaping architecture, hiring, and engineering culture. This role has a natural path toward technical leadership...Visa sponsorshipFlexible hours
$7.5k
...Founding GTM Engineer (Series A Fintech / EdTech) Location and Commitment San Francisco, CA or Phoenix, AZ (In-Person, Full Time) | Seniority: Founding / Senior IC | Equity: Meaningful Founding Stake The Mission Architecting the Financial Rails for the $900B School Choice...Full timeLive inWork at officeWork from homeRelocationVisa sponsorshipRelocation package- ...energy, telecom, healthcare, and more. AI is making it easier to ship code; Metalware is making it easier to ship secure code. Founding Engineer We’re looking for founding engineers to drive our product development from the ground floor. You won’t just optimize existing...Weekend work
- ...Founding Engineer (Full Stack) Location: San Francisco Bay Area Type: Full-Time Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity (founding tier) About the role We’re hiring a founding full stack engineer to help architect and build the platform from day one. This is...Full time
- ...Parachute is a Y Combinator S25 startup building an agentic trading platform. As a Founding Engineer, you will work directly with the founders to build production-grade agentic systems, backend infrastructure, and state-of-the-art quantitative trading strategies and backtesting...
- ...Blind Bio is solving for. About the Role As an AI‑focused Software Engineer at Double Blind Bio, you will help build and operate... ...research workflows Experience working in early‑stage startups or founding teams Deep expertise in at least one area of the stack (frontend...Worldwide
- ...Founding Engineer - Real-Time AI Systems (Healthcare) Hybrid- options in Los Angeles or San Francisco Bay area AI in healthcare mostly lives in the cloud. It helps with notes and paperwork, but it isn't present when care decisions are being made. We're changing that. We...
$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
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