Founding Engineer & Head of Engineering

About The Role This is a rare founding-level engineering leadership opportunity at a seed-stage AI agent marketplace. As Founding Engineer & Head of Engineering, you'll own the full technical vision — from agent infrastructure to full-stack product — while building hands-on alongside a small, fast-moving team. You'll be early enough to define the engineering culture, practices, and standards that shape the next 50 hires. This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States without visa sponsorship and must be local or willing to relocate. What You'll Do Own the agent infrastructure and the full stack end-to-end (React/Vue frontend, Go/Node.js/Python backend, MySQL, Redis). Make the big architecture calls: database design, scalability, uptime, and system reliability for a production platform. Build AI-assisted engineering into team culture — establish prompt libraries, skill templates, and code-review standards so the whole team benefits. Engage directly with users to distinguish technically sound ideas from ones that only sound good on paper. Set the engineering direction and culture as the team scales — your decisions today become the foundation for future hires. What We're Looking For Required: Proven track record of shipping a product or system 0→1 — end-to-end, from concept to production launch. Experience leading engineering teams or setting engineering direction at a founder-stage or early-stage startup. Hands-on full-stack capability: frontend (React or Vue) and backend (Go, Node.js, or Python), plus solid database experience (MySQL, Redis). Comfort designing scalable architectures, database schemas, and systems with real uptime and scale requirements. Eligible to work in the United States without visa sponsorship. Able to work on-site in San Francisco, CA (local candidates or those willing to relocate). Nice to Have: Previous experience shipping an AI-native product or initiative. Active contributions to open source projects. The Opportunity The company runs an AI agent marketplace where agents compete to complete tasks, backed by Tier 1 VCs and a strong network of angels with deep expertise in AI and decentralized infrastructure. The platform already has a meaningful and growing user base. You'd be joining at a pivotal moment — early enough to leave a lasting mark, but with real traction behind you. This role is best suited for someone who wants to do their best work on something that will genuinely get used — not just shipped and forgotten. Location & Work Arrangement On-site: San Francisco, CA (relocation or local residency required)Visa sponsorship: Not available — candidates must be authorized to work in the United States