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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 ...

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 ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $200K/yr

As a Founding AI Engineer, you will be one of the earliest technical hires, shaping the architecture and direction of the AI systems that power the entire product. What You'll Do AI Matching & Social ...

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

$150K - $200K/yr

As a Founding AI Engineer, you will be one of the earliest technical hires, shaping the architecture and direction of the AI systems that power the entire product. What You'll Do AI Matching & Social ...

Noscen

Founding AI Engineer

Sunnyvale, CA · On-site

As a Founding AI Engineer, you will own the entire intelligence layer of this vision from scratch, driving the implementation of a personalized AI assistant and shaping its architecture.

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 ...

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 ...

Mercator

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$170K - $260K/yr

Role Description As Mercator's first AI/Data Systems engineer, you'll build the core pipelines that transform messy, unstructured inputs into clean, structured, reliable data that powers our entire ...

RoboForce

Founding AI Native Lead

Milpitas, CA · On-site

This is a founding builder-operator role focused on turning AI from scattered experiments into ... AI-Native Infrastructure - Partner with engineering and IT on connectors, permissions, local model ...

Clera

Founding Engineer (AI/ML)

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$130K - $170K/yr

As a Founding AI/ML Engineer , you will own the intelligence layer of the product -- building recommendation systems, ranking algorithms, and LLM-powered matching that surfaces the right ...

RoboForce

Founding AI Native Lead

Milpitas, CA

This is a founding builder-operator role focused on turning AI from scattered experiments into ... AI-Native Infrastructure - Partner with engineering and IT on connectors, permissions, local model ...

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Founding Ai Engineer information

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$25

$53

$76

How much do founding ai engineer jobs pay per hour?

As of Jul 13, 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, and why are they important?

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 July 2026, with employment types broken down into 75% Full Time, 22% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 66% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 31% 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

Posted 24 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