Founding Engineer
$150k - $300kFonzi AI
Founding Engineers: Let 100+ Companies Compete For You Fonzi is an AI recruiting company. No job boards. No recruiter spam. Companies request to interview you and submit salary bids upfront. Every week, hiring managers at 100+ pre-vetted startups in NYC and San Francisco review a curated group of engineers. They’re reading profiles optimized by our team to surface what matters: what you’ve built, how you think about systems, and whether you’re the kind of engineer who ships. Companies on Fonzi are Applied AI startups, Frontier labs, Hypergrowth startups, PE firms starting lean AI teams and more. They’re backed by investors like A16z, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Y Combinator and more. How It Works 5-minute application We reach out, learn what you’re building and what excites you, and optimize your profile Hiring managers review the cohort and request interviews with candidates they want Companies submit competing salary bids directly to you You only interview where you’re genuinely interested Completely free. We have an iMessage agent + humans in the loop you can text anytime w/ questions or requests to help handle scheduling and coordination Who We’re Looking For The engineers who do best on Fonzi: Have built AI-powered products end-to-end, not just prototypes, but systems handling real users Can talk fluently about retrieval, memory, agent frameworks, context engineering, eval pipelines and anything else at the cutting edge Combine strong software engineering fundamentals with deep awareness of what’s happening at the frontier of LLMs and agentic systems Thrive in startup environments where the problem is ambiguous and the team is small Have 2-8 years of experience, ideally with experience at at least one high-growth company Compensation $150,000 – $300,000+ base salary depending on experience and role. Many positions include meaningful equity at pre-seed through Series B stage companies. The Interview Process (Typical) Screening conversation looking for communication skills, cultural fit, genuine curiosity about AI Technical deep-dive talks on architecture thinking, how you’d design an AI system for a real problem Coding or pairing sessions building If you’re an engineer who’s been building with AI because you can’t stop thinking about it we want to hear from you. #J-18808-Ljbffr
- ...founders, we're combining modern AI, automation, and software engineering to solve real-world business problems in a large, global market... ...and enterprise organisations worldwide. The Opportunity As a Founding Engineer, you'll work alongside experienced founders and senior...SuggestedWorldwide
$200k - $260k
...About Rhythmic Rhythmic is an embedded stablecoin finance company founded by senior fintech operators with experience at Circle,... ...of building that future. The Role Rhythmic is hiring a Founding Engineer to lead the long-term engineering strategy plus day-to-day execution...SuggestedContract workFor contractors- ...underneath the models, making new LLM releases more valuable, not redundant. The engineering team is currently 4 people and is expected to triple in size in the next two months. The company was founded by former engineers from Palantir, Meta, and Amazon. It has raised $6...Suggested
$200k - $250k
...Founding Engineer | NYC | $200k–$250k + Equity DevLogic is partnering with a stealth, pre‑seed‑backed startup in NYC to find their next Founding Engineer. This is a rare one. You'd be the second engineer in the building, working directly with two technical co‑founders...SuggestedWork at officeRelocation packageFlexible hours$250k - $350k
...The team is eager to bring on a Founding Fullstack AI Engineer to join the team. There is a bit of wiggle room on tenure necessary, we are looking at those with anywhere from 4 Years of Experience onwards. Role Highlights Design and deploy scalable search/retrieval pipelines...Suggested- ...NYC position only . Any applications outside of NYC will not be reviewed. The role Sunspell is a venture lab, and this is a founding engineering seat. You build and ship end-to-end across our internal operating system and the products on top of it, from prototype to production...Full timeContract work
- ...it accountable. We’re VC-backed and pre-seed with a two-person founding team (CEO and CTO) and a growing roster of AI agents handling bookkeeping... ...people can build. That’s why we’re hiring our first dedicated engineer, and why there is an enormous amount to build, fast. The Role...Immediate start
$100k - $180k
...ecosystem. We're backed by the world9s leading investors including Y Combinator, 10X Founders, Zillionize, Amino Capital, etc. As a Founding Engineer , you9ll help architect, build, and scale the core systems that power global payroll and money movement. You9ll work directly...- ...backed by top tier VC’s like Base10 and South Park Commons. Noto is founded by two technical founders AJ Ding and Steve Wang and is based... ...built an AI recruiting company. He was a machine learning engineer and data scientist at Quora, Lyft, & Meta. He studied Statistics...Work at officeLocal areaWork from homeNight shift
- ...at places like Google, BCG and Coalition. You’ll have outsized impact and ownership You'll build something from 0 to 1. As a Founding Engineer, you'll take on many of the responsibilities expected in a founder. Main responsibilities include: Own the end-to-end development...
$120k - $180k
...startup (Google + Y Combinator among the backers) building the AI-native infrastructure to change that. They're looking for a Founding Engineer to help lead the charge — a lean team, real traction, and a founder's-mentality culture where the person who spots the problem...Full time3 days per week$125k - $200k
...meaningful projects in our product pipeline, and we need to grow the engineering team to build out the vision. From day 1 you’ll hit the ground... ...with some of the most exciting work of your career. As a Founding AI Engineer, you’ll be working on new applications of AI that...Full time- ...structure, and provide clarity to the team about moving pieces during periods of growth or change. About the role We’re looking for a Founding Engineer who wants real ownership. You’ll build features, talk to customers, and help shape the product as we figure things out...
- ...of dollars in volume with consistent profitability. We’re based in NYC, founded in 2025, and still small enough that every hire materially shapes the firm. The role We’re hiring a founding engineer to build the systems the trading business runs on — exchange connectors,...
- ...Meta, Shopify, and startups. Now we’re backed by the investors behind OpenAI, Cursor, and SKIMS. The Role We’re looking for a founding engineer who can move fast across the stack and go deep when the problem demands it. Early on, the work will be varied: one week you might...Work at office
- ...previously part of building Europe’s fastest growing InsurTech and founded a licensed EU bank processing payments of €1B/yr+. Now we are... ...growing and best-funded startups. About the role As founding engineer you will work alongside a team of experienced 2x-founders and ex...
- ...candidate profiles across active roles and use resumes/profiles to understand which backgrounds may be a fit. THE ROLE As a Founding GTM Engineer, you may work on projects that require strong execution, communication, analytical judgment, and the ability to move quickly...
$180k - $250k
...Founding Engineer – AI Learning Platform Location: New York City, NY (Hybrid) Employment Type: Full-time Compensation: $180K – $250K We are building the future of learning for the deskless and blue-collar workforce , fundamentally reshaping a $400 billion market by leveraging...Full timeWork at office3 days per week$100k - $250k
Solve Intelligence, a fast-growing startup in New York, is seeking a Founding Growth Engineer to lead product growth efforts. This role involves analyzing product usage, optimizing the revenue pipeline, and collaborating with a talented team to drive user engagement. The...Visa sponsorship- ...improve the product What they're looking for 2-5 years of software engineering experience CS degree from a strong engineering programme (or... ...competitive salary Comp Competitive base + meaningful founding equity. Location New York City - five days onsite. #J-18808-Ljbffr...
- ...Founding Engineer — Aqua The Problem The alternative investment industry moves trillions of dollars a year through fax machines, PDFs, and manual data entry. A single subscription into a private equity fund can require 40+ pages of documents, hand-keyed across three different...
$130k - $160k
...driven company. Role Description Saige is looking for a software engineer excited to work on meaningful problems at the intersection of... ...pipelines to user-facing components. This is a full‑time, on‑site Founding Engineer role based in New York City. Team Description Saige's...Full time- ...and service for our B2B partners allows them to serve more homebuyers, with the products they need, at market leading rates. Founding Engineer The Founding Engineer will operate as technical leader focused on execution, velocity, and practical problem-solving in an early...Self employmentRemote work
$170k - $200k
...Founding Engineer @ Alden Labs About Alden Alden is re-architecting how America delivers care. Caregiving is the largest job in the U.S., yet the system still runs on sticky notes, spreadsheets, and late-night calls. Families wait weeks for help. Patients miss visits....Full timeFlexible hoursNight shift$180k - $220k
Founding Product Engineer Location: New York City (Hybrid, 3 days in office per week) Reports to: CTO Kinstead is building the AI-native operating system for independent healthcare, enabling nurse practitioners to launch and run their own clinics. We replace the fragmented...Full timeWork at office3 days per week- ...We are hiring a founding engineer. This is not a normal engineering job. You will help decide what the company becomes, because the first technical decisions shape everything that follows. If you do this well, years from now large parts of the system will still look the...
$150k - $225k
...Neptune Founding Engineer (Full Stack) Neptune is building the concierge couples trust to navigate the biggest decisions of a life together. We pair emotionally intelligent AI with vetted legal and financial experts and transparent pricing, so both partners can make confident...Work at officeShift work$180k - $220k
...General Context | Founding Engineer | NYC (On-Site) | $180-220K + Equity | Role As a Founding Engineer, you'll help build our agentic marketing/creative platform and the core infrastructure that powers it. This is a ground‑floor opportunity to architect and ship the foundational...- ...Early engineering hire at a well-funded seed-stage startup taking on the proxy advisory duopoly with AI. Hybrid NYC, work directly with... ...approach to corporate governance We’ve raised a sizable seed, the founding team blends deep capital markets experience with technical...Work at office
$220k
...Machine Learning Engineer / Founding Engineer NYC Up to $220K About the Opportunity I'm working with a high-growth AI startup in New York City that is building intelligent solutions at the intersection of machine learning and cloud infrastructure...
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