Founding Engineer

Recruiting From Scratch • San Francisco, CA

21h • Onsite

About The Position

We're representing a venture-backed AI startup building wearable AI copilots for industrial field workers. Their platform combines smart glasses, computer vision, multimodal AI, and agentic workflows to help technicians operating in data centers, energy infrastructure, aerospace, and other complex industrial environments. With strong early customer traction, enterprise deployments already underway, and backing from leading investors, the company is building the infrastructure layer that enables AI to operate effectively in industries where modern software adoption has historically lagged. As one of the earliest hires, you'll have significant influence on product direction, technical architecture, and company growth.

Requirements

• 1–4 years of software engineering experience, preferably in startups or high-intensity engineering environments.
• Experience building and shipping production systems end-to-end.
• Strong backend engineering skills with the ability to operate across the full stack.
• Experience working on agentic AI, multimodal AI, computer vision, or machine learning-powered applications.
• Familiarity with hardware-software integrations, including wearables, robotics, cameras, drones, IoT devices, or embedded systems.
• Experience building low-latency, real-time systems or distributed applications.
• Strong understanding of modern cloud infrastructure and backend architecture.
• Proven ability to work independently and thrive in highly ambiguous environments.
• Strong product ownership mentality and willingness to contribute beyond engineering responsibilities.

Nice To Haves

• Previous founding engineer or early-stage startup experience.
• Experience with computer vision, multimodal AI, or vision-language models.
• Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, AR/VR, wearable technology, edge computing, or industrial software.
• Experience deploying AI models on edge devices or resource-constrained environments.
• Familiarity with low-latency streaming systems, WebRTC, RTP/UDP, or real-time communications.
• Experience with C++, Rust, embedded Linux, firmware, or systems-level programming.
• Strong academic background in Computer Science, Engineering, Robotics, or related technical disciplines.
• Evidence of exceptional technical drive through side projects, startups, open-source contributions, competitive programming, or entrepreneurial initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Build and own the full-stack product that powers the company’s agentic vision-language platform.
• Design and develop backend services, APIs, databases, storage systems, and customer-facing applications.
• Integrate multimodal AI and computer vision systems into real-world industrial workflows.
• Build and improve evaluation frameworks, feedback loops, and data flywheels that continuously improve model performance.
• Develop internal AI-powered tooling that increases company productivity and operational efficiency.
• Work closely with customers to deploy solutions, understand field requirements, and translate feedback into product improvements.
• Contribute to technical strategy, hiring decisions, and scaling efforts as an early member of the engineering team.
• Help bridge hardware and software systems, ensuring reliable deployments across wearable devices and edge environments.

Benefits

• Base salary: $150,000–$200,000.
• Equity: 2–3%.
• Visa sponsorship available for qualified U.S.-based candidates.
• Opportunity to join as a true founding engineer with significant ownership and influence.
• Direct access to founders and involvement in technical, product, and go-to-market strategy.
• Exposure to cutting-edge multimodal AI, computer vision, robotics, and wearable technologies.
• Fast-paced, highly entrepreneurial culture focused on shipping and customer impact.
• Optional hacker-house living environment for candidates interested in a deeply immersive startup experience.
• Opportunity to help build category-defining AI products serving major enterprise and government customers.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level