Founding Software Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

San Francisco, CA · On-site (5 days per week) · Full-time Compensation: $200,000 – $250,000 + competitive equity

About the Company

Our client is a seed-stage aviation AI company building software that turns what happens inside a cockpit into automated, structured debrief intelligence for flight instructors and training commanders. Purpose-built hardware streams cockpit audio and flight telemetry to the cloud in real time, where the platform's analytics produce the debrief. The product is already deployed and in daily use across major collegiate flight training programs, a commercial flight academy, and a branch of the U.S. military.

Founded 2024 · 1–10 people · Industry: Aviation, AI/ML, Defense Technology

The Role

This is a founding engineering seat on a team of fewer than ten, working directly with the CTO. You would own entire systems end to end, from the backend and data pipelines that power the AI debrief platform through to the interfaces instructors and commanders rely on every day. It is deliberately not a defined-scope job: you will make the architecture calls, ship to production, and lay the foundation for a technical team you eventually lead.

What makes this role unusual is that it asks for two things at once. You need the engineering depth to build real-time, multimodal data infrastructure, and you need genuine pilot context to understand what a bug or a dropped data frame actually costs in a cockpit. For that reason, an FAA pilot certificate is a firm requirement, not a preference.

What you'll be doing

• Build and scale the backend and data infrastructure behind the AI debrief platform, from ingestion of multimodal flight audio and telemetry through to streamed, structured output
• Integrate flight dynamics, telemetry, and cockpit audio into debrief and training systems used by flight schools and military operators
• Own the architecture decisions that determine how the platform scales, including framework selection, infrastructure choices, and long-lived technical bets
• Work directly with pilots, instructors, and military operators, and turn their feedback into engineering decisions
• Ship production code across the full stack and iterate against real operator use, not hypotheticals
• Set engineering culture, code standards, and the hiring bar from the founding stage

Tech stack: Python, TypeScript, full-stack web, real-time multimodal data pipelines (audio + telemetry), AWS, CI/CD, containerization

Requirements

• A current FAA pilot certificate at private pilot level or above, up to and including CFII or ATP. This one is firm — the role genuinely requires cockpit context, and candidates without a certificate will not be considered
• At least five years of professional software engineering experience, with a demonstrable record of designing, building, and running complex systems in production
• Strong depth in at least one of backend systems, distributed infrastructure, data engineering, or full-stack development, and the range to work comfortably across backend and frontend
• Working proficiency in both Python and TypeScript, which are the languages in use in the codebase
• A history of leading projects from initial scoping and technical design all the way through launch and iteration, with very little direction
• Sound architectural judgment, and experience building for scale, reliability, and performance
• A scrappy, entrepreneurial background — time at early-stage startups, or a clear record of getting things done where no playbook existed
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and moving quickly without letting quality slip
• A habit of lifting the standard around you through code review and mentoring
• Willingness to work startup hours on-site in San Francisco five days a week

Nice to Haves

• Hands-on work with modern data pipelines, real-time systems, or AI/ML integration
• Something you built from nothing that real people ended up using
• Practical experience with AWS, CI/CD, containers, and deployment tooling
• Exposure to aviation systems, avionics data formats, flight training workflows, or defense technology environments
• Real aviation context beyond the certificate itself
• A previous founding or lead engineering role at an aviation or otherwise deeply technical startup
• A full-stack track record where you held architectural ownership rather than executing someone else's design
• Experience with multimodal or real-time pipelines, including audio diarization, signal processing, or speech-to-text at the application layer
• Regular use of AI-assisted development tools in your day-to-day workflow
• Genuine readiness for the grind of a very early company

Why Join

• A true founding engineering seat: direct line to the CTO, systems you own outright, and a role that grows into technical leadership with a team under you
• Your code ships into aircraft and is used daily by pilots, flight instructors, and military operators — the feedback loop is immediate and real
• Flight training is funded as a benefit, alongside meaningful early-stage equity
• The hard architecture questions are still open, and this hire answers them

Details

• Location — San Francisco, CA
• Work policy — On-site, five days per week, startup hours
• Compensation — $200,000 – $250,000 + competitive equity
• Experience — 5+ years
• Visa sponsorship — Not available for this role
• Employment type — Full-time