Founding Engineer

About the role

This is a rare founding engineering position at an early-stage consumer AI company building real-time, human-feeling conversational experiences. You'll work directly alongside the founder to shape both the product and the engineering culture from the ground up — this is a genuine 1-of-1 seat at the table.

Responsibilities

• Build across the full stack — frontend, backend, and everything in between — collaborating closely with the founder, design, and fellow engineers.
• Design and implement systems for memory, retrieval, proactivity, and responsiveness to make AI feel more present and alive.
• Integrate and improve real-time video generation and audio synthesis models, both internal and third-party.
• Set the bar for engineering quality and actively help recruit exceptional talent as the team scales.
• Dogfood the product deeply and use that insight to drive meaningful improvements.

Requirements

• 2–7 years of software engineering experience, with at least some professional time building production systems — not a new grad.
• Strong computer science fundamentals: data structures, algorithms, and system design.
• CS degree or equivalent technical background from a strong academic program.
• Demonstrated ability to build technically complex projects end-to-end (professional, open source, or side projects).
• Experience with full-stack application development across frontend and backend.
• Comfort integrating external APIs and third-party services.
• Experience in an early-stage startup or fast-moving, ambiguous environment.
• Proficiency in Python, including typed scientific Python.

Skills

• Bonus: experience with real-time media systems (video streaming, live communication, or audio processing), vision or video generation models, memory or retrieval systems, or audio synthesis applications.
• High energy, entrepreneurial drive, and genuine excitement about early-stage consumer AI.

Pay

Base salary $175,000–$225,000 USD annually, plus equity.

Benefits

• Visa sponsorship is available.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, CA. In-person presence is required.