Founding Engineer
$150k - $250kClera
Job Description
Job Description
About the Role
This is the first engineering hire at a freshly funded, solo-founded startup building the infrastructure layer for AI-native service companies. You will work directly with the founder to turn a working product into agentic infrastructure capable of supporting a million users. The role carries a clear path to CTO as the team grows.
What You'll DoRebuild a working product into scalable agentic infrastructure from the ground up.
Design and operate the agent runtime: orchestration, memory, verification, and the machinery that makes an AI workforce reliable.
Own work end to end across backend, infrastructure, frontend, and agent systems.
Set the technical stack, standards, and engineering culture as the person establishing them.
Ship to production weekly for real businesses running on the platform today.
At least 2 years shipping production software, or an equivalent track record as a founder or solo builder. Exceptional engineers earlier in their career are explicitly welcome.
Hands-on experience building and running LLM or AI agent systems in production, with real users depending on them. Demos and side projects do not count.
Full-stack range: able to move from backend and infrastructure through to the UI without waiting for a specialist.
Proven ability to turn a working prototype into infrastructure that holds real load, covering architecture, data models, runtime, and orchestration.
Experience owning technical decisions with no engineering organisation above you, whether as a founder, early hire, or solo technical lead.
Founder instincts and generalist depth. Ex-founders are a strong signal.
Familiarity with agent orchestration, agent memory, evals or verification systems, or multi-agent workflows is a strong plus.
Strong CS fundamentals, from a rigorous academic background or a well-regarded engineering environment. A positive signal, never a requirement.
Comfort with the first-hire experience: broad scope, real ambiguity, and an in-person founding team.
Base salary: $150,000 to $250,000 USD annually. The band is wide because the right person sets their own number. Meaningful founding equity is included. Relocation support and visa sponsorship are genuinely available for candidates not yet based in the US.
LocationOn-site in San Francisco, CA. The founding team works deliberately in person together. Relocation and visa sponsorship are on the table for the right candidate.
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