Founding Engineer

About the role

An early-stage technology startup is building a next-generation research intelligence platform designed for data-intensive organizations. Backed by strong early customer traction, you will have significant ownership across product development, architecture, infrastructure, and customer-facing solutions. You'll work closely with founders and users to solve complex technical challenges at the intersection of AI, knowledge systems, and enterprise software.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable backend systems for knowledge-driven workflows
• Enhance search, retrieval, and AI-powered product capabilities
• Develop abstractions and data models for complex enterprise datasets
• Create reliable, intuitive product experiences for sophisticated end users
• Improve cloud and private-environment deployment infrastructure
• Drive system reliability, observability, testing, and performance
• Collaborate directly with customers to translate requirements into product features
• Contribute to engineering standards, technical direction, and team culture

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering fundamentals
• Proficiency in backend development, preferably with Python
• Experience owning projects and solving ambiguous problems independently
• Comfortable working across multiple areas of the technology stack
• Strong product mindset and focus on user experience
• Experience in one or more of the following:
  • Search and retrieval systems
  • RAG or AI-powered applications
  • Knowledge graphs
  • Data platforms and distributed systems
  • Infrastructure or developer tooling
• Excellent communication skills and a high level of ownership
• Sound understanding of security, privacy, and system reliability

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with enterprise, on-premise, VPC, or regulated environments
• Frontend development experience with React and TypeScript

Benefits

• Ownership of a core product from an early stage
• Direct exposure to customers, company strategy, and product direction
• Opportunity to work on challenging problems spanning AI, infrastructure, data, and user experience
• Meaningful equity and long-term growth potential
• A highly collaborative, low-bureaucracy environment with strong engineering standards

Ideal Candidate

This opportunity is best suited for an engineer who thrives in early-stage environments, enjoys building products from the ground up, and is excited by high-impact technical challenges. The team values exceptional problem-solving ability, craftsmanship, and a willingness to take ownership.