Founding Engineer

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)
Full-time

About Our Client

Our client is a highly prestigious, well-funded AI startup built by proven operators with a track record of scaling complex systems and real businesses. The company is attacking problems most organizations avoid—because they are hard, ambiguous, and consequential.

This is not incremental software. This is foundational work.

Backed by top-tier venture capital and operating in stealth, the company is assembling a small, elite founding team to build systems that replace slow, manual, human-heavy processes with intelligent, autonomous software that operates continuously at enterprise scale.

The ambition is simple and uncompromising: build software that materially changes how large organizations operate.

The Role

This is a Founding Engineer role in the truest sense.

You will help design and build the company’s core intelligence platform from zero to production. You will make architectural decisions that matter. You will write software that ships. You will shape how engineering is done here.

If you are looking for comfort, stability, or clearly defined problems—this role is not for you.
If you want ownership, leverage, and the chance to work on systems that actually matter—keep reading.

Early hires directly unlock customer deployments and revenue.

What You’ll Do

• Design and build core systems end-to-end:

  • Data ingestion and pipelines

  • Model orchestration and feedback loops

  • APIs, services, and internal tooling

  • UI and workflow integrations where needed

• Own architectural decisions across the stack (TypeScript, Python, Go)

• Build systems that are scalable, durable, and evolvable—not demos

• Work closely with leadership to define product direction and technical trade-offs

• Set the technical and cultural bar for engineering as the company scales

• Engage with early customers when useful to deeply understand real problems

Who You Are

• 5–15 years of professional experience, with 5+ years in an engineering role

• Operated at senior scope in demanding environments

• Held a senior title at a company with a real hiring bar (e.g., FAANG, Databricks, Snowflake, or equivalent)

• Experienced across multiple parts of the stack

• Comfortable operating without a playbook

• Calm under ambiguity, decisive under pressure

• Low ego, high standards, strong sense of ownership

Requirements

Technical Expectations

• Deep strength in at least one of:

  • Distributed systems

  • Data engineering / data pipelines

  • AI / ML systems

• Strong working fluency in modern stacks:

  • TypeScript

  • Python

  • Go

  • Postgres

  • React or similar frontend frameworks

• Able to critically evaluate, guide, and improve AI-assisted code generation

• You care about correctness, performance, and long-term maintainability

Education (Signal, Not a Gate)

• Background from a top Computer Science program is a plus
  (e.g., MIT, Stanford, CMU, UC Berkeley, Caltech, Harvard, University of Washington, Georgia Tech, Cornell)

• Exceptional engineers without this background are absolutely encouraged to apply

This Role Is Not for You If

• You optimize for titles over impact

• You need constant structure and direction

• You bring ego instead of curiosity

• You avoid ownership or accountability

• You have a pattern of short stints without clear reasoning

Compensation

• Base Salary: $160,000 – $220,000 (flexible for exceptional candidates)

• Equity: Competitive founding-level ownership

• Rapid growth in scope and compensation as the company scales and delivers

Work Model

• Hybrid role based in San Francisco

• Expectation of 3 days per week in-office

• Fully remote may be considered only to secure truly exceptional talent and would require a deliberate shift to a fully remote culture

Visa Sponsorship

• Visa sponsorship available on a case-by-case basis

• The company has deep experience supporting employment-based visas

• Strong commitment to ensuring sponsored candidates are never placed in risky situations

• Support may include H1B → O1 transitions or facilitated portfolio transfers

Hiring Plan

• Hiring 2–5 founding engineers

• The bar is intentionally high

• Quality and ownership matter more than speed

Interview Process

A rigorous but respectful 4-step process:

1. Initial screen

2. Technical interview(s)

3. System design and coding evaluation

4. Final culture and values interview

TopTech Talent is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, citizenship status, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.

🚫 Third-party recruiters, please do not reach out for this role.