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Founding Ai Engineer Jobs in San Ramon, CA (NOW HIRING)

Falconer AI

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200K - $300K/yr

  • Retirement

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 ...

Semble AI

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

As a Founding AI Engineer, you will work closely with the founders to build advanced systems that streamline compliance with evolving building codes and enhance the design process. Responsibilities ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $200K/yr

About the Role A fast-growing, AI-first consumer social platform is hiring a Founding AI Engineer to join its core team in San Francisco. The company uses AI agents to facilitate real-world, in ...

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

$150K - $200K/yr

About the Role A fast-growing, AI-first consumer social platform is hiring a Founding AI Engineer to join its core team in San Francisco. The company uses AI agents to facilitate real-world, in ...

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $180K/yr

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

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 ...

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

$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 ...

Mason AI

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$160K - $210K/yr

  • Medical

  • Retirement

We're looking for a Founding AI Engineer to improve Mason's accuracy on our evals. You will go deep on the cutting edge of optimizing multimodal AI agents. We have similar technical problems as other ...

New

Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $180K/yr

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

Bronco

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $250K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Retirement

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 AI startup building the intelligence layer for the construction industry. The company uses cutting-edge computer vision and ...

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 uses cutting-edge computer vision and ...

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

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 ...

Hera (YC S25)

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

The Founding AI Engineer will be responsible for building and optimizing AI systems for generating high-quality animations, collaborating with motion designers to inform AI training data, and ...

LHi Group Ltd

Founding AI Product Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200K - $260K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Retirement

Founding AI Product Engineer Location: San Francisco, CA (60 hour work weeks) Compensation: $200,000-$260,000 base + equity + benefits About the Opportunity An early-stage, profitable AI ...

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Showing results 1-20

All JobsFounding Ai Engineer JobsFounding Ai Engineer Jobs in San Ramon, CA

Founding Ai Engineer information

See San Ramon, CA salary details

$28

$59

$85

How much do founding ai engineer jobs pay per hour?

As of Aug 18, 2026, the average hourly pay for founding ai engineer in San Ramon, CA is $59.93, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $48.37 and $69.57 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 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 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 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.

What are popular job titles related to Founding Ai Engineer jobs in San Ramon, CA?

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Cities near San Ramon, CA with the most Founding Ai Engineer job openings:

Founding Ai Engineer jobs near you

Founding AI Engineer

Falconer AI

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$200K - $300K/yr

Full-time

Retirement

Re-posted 10 hours 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