Founding Engineer
Ever wonder what it feels like to build the inbox for the AI age? Not another chat wrapper, but the actual infrastructure that lets autonomous AI agents send, receive, and own real-world communication—identity, authentication, and messaging at scale, built from the ground up. This fast-growing, well-funded startup is already live, generating revenue, and scaling quickly. They're looking for the next Founding Engineer to help write the next chapter—this is a "0 to 1" seat, not a ticket-taking role.
About the role
If you're the kind of engineer who gets restless when a project isn't yours to own end-to-end—who'd rather scope it, architect it, ship it, and defend the tradeoffs—this is your kind of chaos. You'll build the APIs and backend systems that are the literal heartbeat of the product, owning full projects from a blank whiteboard to production traffic. Expect 80% backend work and 20% wherever the problem takes you—frontend, tooling, distributed systems, etc. You'll pitch ideas nobody assigned you and talk directly to customers when it counts.
Requirements
- 0-5 years of backend/full-stack experience (new grads with sharp instincts and strong internships welcome).
- You've shipped something real at a VC-backed startup or a major tech company and can point to it and say "I built that."
- Strong in TypeScript (or a comparable modern backend framework).
- You default to action, not permission.
Benefits
- $150K–$250K base (flexible for the right person) + 0.5%–1% equity.
- Daily fitness membership.
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner covered.
Schedule
On-site in San Francisco, with a small, technically elite team that's hiring for multiple seats right now.
This isn't a "grow into it eventually" role—it's a "your fingerprints are on everything we ship" role, on a team that will remember who was there at the beginning.