Founding Software Engineer ($160k-$220k + Equity) at Alcor Labs

About the role

Join as the first engineer at a $5M Seed-stage company led by technical founders from MIT and NASA, with backing from A* and strategic angels.

Work on a tangible, high-impact product with live paying pilots at multi-billion-dollar enterprises like Equans and Park Place Technologies, generating immediate revenue.

Secure a significant founding-team equity grant of up to 2% and the opportunity to architect the core infrastructure of a future physical-AI powerhouse.

Responsibilities

• Design and scale real-time video and audio streaming pipelines from wearable hardware through phone edge relays to cloud-based VLM inference engines.
• Build and maintain production-grade full-stack APIs, mobile integrations, and on-prem deployment systems for high-security customers in aerospace and defense.
• Implement observability and evaluation frameworks for vision-language models to ensure reliability and speed in high-stakes, real-world industrial environments.

Requirements

• A full-stack shipping generalist or AI/CV expert with less than 7 years of experience who has built and productionized software used by real people.
• Proven experience with applied AI, specifically visual perception or agentic reasoning loops, and a strong interest in deploying systems to industrial or physical-world settings.
• Thrives in high-intensity, in-person environments and is ready to work 6 days a week in San Francisco to build a category-defining company from scratch.

Qualifications

• Technical background in software engineering or related fields.
• Experience with real-time video and audio processing technologies.
• Strong understanding of cloud computing and distributed systems.
• Knowledge of computer vision and natural language processing.

Skills

• Full-stack development skills.
• Experience with machine learning and deep learning frameworks.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, high-intensity environment.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.

Benefits

• Competitive salary range of $160k-$220k plus equity.
• Opportunity to join a dynamic, innovative startup.
• Flexible work schedule to accommodate high-intensity environments.
• Access to cutting-edge technology and tools.

Pay

$160k-$220k + Equity

Schedule

6 days a week in San Francisco

What You Will Do

Design and scale real-time video and audio streaming pipelines from wearable hardware through phone edge relays to cloud-based VLM inference engines.

Build and maintain production-grade full-stack APIs, mobile integrations, and on-prem deployment systems for high-security customers in aerospace and defense.

Implement observability and evaluation frameworks for vision-language models to ensure reliability and speed in high-stakes, real-world industrial environments.