Founding Engineer

About the company

Industry: Developer Tools / AI

An early-stage AI startup is building an experimentation platform that tests how AI coding agents interact with developer tools. The platform runs real coding sessions to evaluate whether AI agents can discover, use, and successfully work with a product, helping companies identify friction and improve adoption.

The company is focused on moving quickly, testing ideas with customers, and using feedback to improve its product.

Your tasks

About the Role The company is hiring its third engineer to take ownership of core backend systems and infrastructure. You’ll build and scale the systems that run coding-agent sessions, including sandboxes, AI gateways, and orchestration infrastructure.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role for an engineer who can make independent technical decisions, build systems from scratch, and deliver improvements quickly. The goal is to take ownership of significant backend components within the first two to three months.

• Take ownership of core backend systems and infrastructure.
• Build and scale infrastructure for coding-agent sessions, including sandboxes, gateways, and orchestration.
• Ship features directly to customers and iterate quickly based on feedback.
• Make independent architectural decisions and explain the reasoning behind them.
• Improve system reliability and scalability.
• Reduce the engineering team's dependence on existing technical leadership.

Requirements

Experience: 3+ years; 5+ preferred

Visa Sponsorship: Not available; candidates must be authorized to work in the US

• At least 3 years of engineering experience, with 5+ years preferred.
• Experience at a fast-growing Seed or Series A startup; a recent role at a startup is essential.
• Strong backend engineering and distributed-systems fundamentals.
• Proven experience designing and building production systems from scratch.
• Experience with AWS, networking, containers, or sandbox infrastructure.
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, TypeScript, Next.js/React, and Python/Django.
• Regular use of AI coding agents and enthusiasm for the technology.
• High autonomy, strong ownership, and the ability to deliver quickly.
• Fluent spoken and written English.
• Availability to work in person in San Francisco five days per week.
• Experience with agent infrastructure or developer tools is a strong advantage.

What we offer

Salary: $200,000–$250,000 per year

Equity: 0.5%–1%

How to apply

Interview Process

• Initial Screen
• Technical Screen
• On-site Interview
• Offer and Hiring

Other

We’re supporting a client with the recruitment requirement outlined below. If your recruiting expertise and networks align with the role, please apply to express your interest.

Role Details Location: San Francisco, California

Employment: Full-time, in-office, 5 days per week