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Founding Ai Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Falconer AI

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200K - $300K/yr

We're looking for a Founding AI Engineer to help us build an AI-powered knowledge platform that companies love. As a founding engineer, you'll have a major impact on our product development ...

Bronco AI

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

The Founding AI Engineer will be responsible for developing the core intelligence for these agents, including designing training pipelines and improving decision-making through reinforcement learning.

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $180K/yr

About the Role This is a founding engineering role at a seed-stage AI startup building the intelligence layer for the construction industry. The company's platform transforms messy blueprints ...

Everstar Inc

Founding AI Engineer

New York, NY · On-site

Founding AI Engineer (AI + Production) New York City (5 days on-site) • Top of market + equity + benefits TL;DR: Build AI that accelerates nuclear deployment. Own AI production from evals to fine ...

Bild AI

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $180K/yr

Founding AI Engineer We founded Bild AI to tackle the mess that is blueprint reading, cost estimation, and permit applications in construction. It's a tough technical problem that requires the newest ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $200K/yr

As a Founding AI Engineer , you'll own two of the most technically challenging and impactful areas of the product: AI-driven matching and social graphs, and multi-channel AI agent experiences. This ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $200K/yr

As a Founding AI Engineer , you'll own two of the most technically challenging and impactful areas of the product: AI-driven matching and social graphs, and multi-channel AI agent experiences. This ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $180K/yr

About the Role This is a founding engineering role at a seed-stage AI startup building the intelligence layer for the construction industry. The company's platform transforms messy blueprints ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $180K/yr

About the Role This is a founding engineering role at a seed-stage construction AI company building the intelligence layer that transforms messy blueprints, permits, and construction documents into ...

Bronco

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $250K/yr

About the Role As a Founding AI Engineer, you will own the core intelligence of Bronco's agents. That means designing the training pipelines, reward models, and evaluation harnesses that will make ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $180K/yr

About the Role This is a founding engineering role at a seed-stage construction AI company building the intelligence layer that transforms messy blueprints, permits, and construction documents into ...

Mintex Technology

Founding AI Engineer

Philadelphia, PA · On-site

$180K/yr

Founding AI / ML Engineer Location: Philadelphia, PA (Hybrid -3 days) - Remote Employment Type: Full-Time Salary: $180K + equity About Company: ***** is building the AI-powered workflow layer for ...

Delfino AI

Founding AI Engineer

$106K - $143K/yr

They are seeking a Founding AI Software Engineer to lead the development and scaling of their voice AI-based product and work closely with the founders to shape the direction of the company.

Nolla Health

Founding AI Engineer

New York, NY · On-site

$160K - $220K/yr

THE ROLE This is an AI engineering role, not an ML engineering role. You won't be training models ... You'll work directly with the founding team and your work reaches patients immediately. WHAT YOU'LL ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$225K - $255K/yr

As our Founding AI Engineer , you'll own the evaluation systems, feedback loops, and LLM infrastructure that allow our pricing AI to earn trust and drive measurable revenue impact. This is a high ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$225K - $255K/yr

About the Role This is a founding-level AI engineering role at an early-stage B2B SaaS pricing intelligence startup based in San Francisco. You'll be one of the first engineers on a small, product ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$225K - $255K/yr

As our Founding AI Engineer , you'll own the evaluation systems, feedback loops, and LLM infrastructure that allow our pricing AI to earn trust and drive measurable revenue impact. This is a high ...

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Founding Ai Engineer information

See salary details

$25

$53

$76

How much do founding ai engineer jobs pay per hour?

As of Aug 6, 2026, the average hourly pay for founding ai engineer in the United States is $53.63, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $43.27 and $62.26 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a founding AI engineer?

A Founding AI Engineer is an early member of a startup's technical team, responsible for designing, building, and implementing artificial intelligence systems that form the core of the company's product or service. This role often involves working closely with company founders to set technical direction, make key architectural decisions, and develop scalable machine learning solutions from the ground up. Founding AI Engineers are expected to wear multiple hats, contribute to both research and engineering efforts, and help establish best practices as the company grows. They play a crucial role in shaping the company's technology culture and long-term vision.

What are some unique challenges a founding AI engineer might face in an early-stage startup environment?

As a Founding AI Engineer in a startup, you'll often be responsible for both building core AI systems and setting up foundational engineering practices. Unique challenges include balancing rapid prototyping with long-term scalability, working with limited resources, and defining the technical roadmap alongside product priorities. You'll likely collaborate closely with founders, product managers, and sometimes even customers, making adaptability and strong communication essential. This role offers significant autonomy but also requires comfort with ambiguity and frequent shifts in direction as the company grows.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a founding AI engineer?

To thrive as a Founding AI Engineer, you need deep expertise in machine learning, software engineering, and algorithm development, typically supported by an advanced degree in computer science or a related field. Proficiency with frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch, cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP), and version control systems is essential, along with experience deploying AI models to production. Strong problem-solving, adaptability, and entrepreneurial mindset distinguish top performers in this role. These skills are vital for building innovative AI solutions from the ground up, shaping product direction, and driving early-stage company success.

What is the difference between Founding Ai Engineer vs AI Engineer?

AspectFounding Ai EngineerAI Engineer
Required CredentialsBachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, AI, or related fields; experience in AI developmentBachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, AI, or related fields; experience in AI development
Work EnvironmentStartup or early-stage company, often in a founding or core team roleEstablished companies, tech firms, or startups with ongoing AI projects
Employer & Industry UsageFounding AI roles are common in startups and new venturesWidely used across industries including tech, finance, healthcare, and more

The main difference is that a Founding AI Engineer is typically an early team member in a startup, often involved in shaping the company's AI strategy from the ground up, whereas an AI Engineer generally works within established organizations on ongoing AI projects. Both roles require similar technical credentials but differ in scope, environment, and level of responsibility.

More about Founding Ai Engineer jobs
What cities are hiring for Founding Ai Engineer jobs? Cities with the most Founding Ai Engineer job openings:
What states have the most Founding Ai Engineer jobs? States with the most job openings for Founding Ai Engineer jobs include:
What job categories do people searching Founding Ai Engineer jobs look for? The top searched job categories for Founding Ai Engineer jobs are:
Founding Ai Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Founding Ai Engineer job openings in the United States as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 75% Full Time, 21% Part Time, and 4% Contract. Highlights an 67% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 30% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $111,552 per year, or $53.6 per hour.

Founding AI Engineer

Falconer AI

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$200K - $300K/yr

Full-time

Retirement

Re-posted 18 days ago

Job description

At Falconer, we're transforming how engineers create, access, and share knowledge with each other and their AI agents. We're looking for a Founding AI Engineer to help us build an AI-powered knowledge platform that companies love.
As a founding engineer, you'll have a major impact on our product development, technical direction, and culture.
Key responsibilities:
  • Participate in the entire product development lifecycle, including architecture, coding, testing, and deploying
  • Research and apply best practices in terms of Knowledge Graph, embeddings, vector and graph RAG search, fine-tuning, and model optimization
  • Develop and maintain backend systems including API services, databases, and server-side logic
  • Optimize tech stack and applications for maximum precision and speed
  • Write clean, efficient, and well-documented code, following industry best practices-the Falconer platform will help you!
  • Stay updated with emerging technologies in web development and make recommendations for adopting new tools and practices

Who you are:
  • Advanced degree in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or equivalent work experience
  • Minimum of 2 years of professional experience in developing ML data pipelines
  • Experience with text embeddings, RAG systems, and similarity search
  • Familiar with Entity and Relationship recognition models
  • Skilled at prompt engineering
  • Ability to implement backend systems in Python and/or Node.js
  • You can evaluate tradeoffs and propose the most appropriate storage solution (SQL, NoSQL, Vector DBs, Graph databases)
  • You enjoy hard problems and open-ended assignments
  • You use data to make decisions, and experiment your way around hard problems

Bonus points:
  • You've developed products with LLMs before (extra if you've already built your own agents)
  • You have fine-tuned foundational models to tailor responses to specific data use cases
  • You have experience with LlamaIndex and Memgraph to produce knowledge graphs

Perks and benefits:
  • Generous equity package
  • Competitive salary and benefits
  • 401(k) retirement account
  • The best equipment and tools, like a spec'd out MacBook, and dev prod tools like Cursor, Claude, and Linear to help you move fast
  • Flexible work arrangements with in-office work or hybrid work for the right candidate
  • Our current office is in San Francisco, just steps from Caltrain

At Falconer, we value diversity and equal opportunities. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace. If you are passionate about technology and thrive in a challenging environment, come join our team and help us shape the future of work communication.

Apply