Founding Engineer

Ultralytics•New York, NY

12h•Hybrid

About The Position

As Founding Engineer, you'll help establish our New York engineering team, shipping features across the YOLO ML/computer vision surface and the platform around it. You'll connect model capabilities with usable interfaces, reliable APIs, and production infrastructure. "Founding" means end-to-end ownership, not a queue of assigned tickets. You'll define scope, make architectural decisions, write and review code, deploy changes, and own production outcomes. This is a hands-on senior engineer with tech-lead responsibility, not a people-management requirement. You'll use AI coding tools daily and coordinate with colleagues in the UK, Spain, and China through clear plans, async communication, and accountable delivery.

Requirements

Senior-to-principal/distinguished-level industry delivery, with sustained ownership of feature areas and tech-lead-level accountability.
Shipped ML/AI and computer vision work, with practical Python and PyTorch proficiency beyond coursework or research.
Full-stack capability spanning user interfaces, APIs, databases, cloud infrastructure, deployment, and production operations.
Current AI-assisted development experience, sound review judgment, and a preference for mainstream, well-documented tools.
Strong async communication, work breakdown, and deadline delivery within structured teams; no degree required, but industry experience is essential.
Applicants must have legal authorization to work in the country of application.

Nice To Haves

Production experience with TypeScript, React, and Python API frameworks such as FastAPI.
Experience with PostgreSQL, Docker, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and cloud platforms.
Hands-on model serving, GPU optimization, inference monitoring, or edge deployment experience.
Contributions to Ultralytics or other open-source projects and engagement with our developer community.
Early engineering experience building products and establishing technical practices across international teams.

Responsibilities

Own a feature area from requirements and architecture through implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration.
Ship ML/CV capabilities alongside full-stack interfaces, backend services, and infrastructure, using our documentation and guides.
Use Copilot or Codex routinely, validating generated code for correctness, security, and maintainability.
Break ambiguous work into milestones, align dependencies across locations, and communicate decisions and blockers asynchronously.
Balance customer needs, technical trade-offs, and commercial deadlines with Product and Engineering.
Lead design and code reviews, unblock engineers, and set standards for testing, observability, and production reliability.
Strengthen our open-source ecosystem through maintainable contributions, technical documentation, and engineering knowledge-sharing.