San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-stage AI data infrastructure startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer with 1+ years of professional experience shipping to production. This is a foundational ...
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-stage AI data infrastructure startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer with 1+ years of professional experience shipping to production. This is a foundational ...
$250K - $400K/yr
AI Tools / Dev Tools The Role The client is hiring a Founding Engineer to build the systems that deliver accurate root-cause analysis to clients. The role isn't limited to full-stack, infra, or ...
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$250K - $400K/yr
AI Tools / Dev Tools The Role The client is hiring a Founding Engineer to build the systems that deliver accurate root-cause analysis to clients. The role isn't limited to full-stack, infra, or ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-stage AI data infrastructure startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer with 1+ years of professional experience shipping to production. This is a foundational ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-stage AI data infrastructure startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer with 1+ years of professional experience shipping to production. This is a foundational ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$97K - $129K/yr
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to engage in full stack web development, improve AI inference pipelines, and enhance user editing capabilities within their innovative product. Responsibilities ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$97K - $129K/yr
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to engage in full stack web development, improve AI inference pipelines, and enhance user editing capabilities within their innovative product. Responsibilities ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to help build the agent, generative UI, and evaluation loops to improve the product autonomously. Responsibilities : • The agent. LLM orchestration ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to help build the agent, generative UI, and evaluation loops to improve the product autonomously. Responsibilities : • The agent. LLM orchestration ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$1.0K/day
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to work directly with the founder on complex problems in real-time AI interaction, spanning backend infrastructure, ML model integration, and frontend surfaces.
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$1.0K/day
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to work directly with the founder on complex problems in real-time AI interaction, spanning backend infrastructure, ML model integration, and frontend surfaces.
San Francisco, CA · On-site
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to work on multi-agent systems and infrastructure that enhances website performance and customer engagement. Responsibilities : • Multi-agent systems that plan ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to work on multi-agent systems and infrastructure that enhances website performance and customer engagement. Responsibilities : • Multi-agent systems that plan ...
$175K - $250K/yr
A former founder or founding engineer * A top-school background with high raw intelligence * Taste and judgment on AI-generated outputs * Deep technical taste that predates AI tools * Genuine ...
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$175K - $250K/yr
A former founder or founding engineer * A top-school background with high raw intelligence * Taste and judgment on AI-generated outputs * Deep technical taste that predates AI tools * Genuine ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$200K/yr
This is a founding engineer role on a zero-to-one product with meaningful distribution, regulatory complexity, and infrastructure leverage. You'll work closely with product, design, compliance, and ...
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$200K/yr
This is a founding engineer role on a zero-to-one product with meaningful distribution, regulatory complexity, and infrastructure leverage. You'll work closely with product, design, compliance, and ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
Interface is looking for generalist founding engineers (ml, data, full-stack) who are scrappy, push boundaries and have a need to win. We need to work hard and build quick to win. We want people to ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
Interface is looking for generalist founding engineers (ml, data, full-stack) who are scrappy, push boundaries and have a need to win. We need to work hard and build quick to win. We want people to ...
Palo Alto, CA · On-site
As a Founding Engineer, you will collaborate with the founders to shape the product architecture and vision, while having the opportunity to engage in research and customer interaction.
Palo Alto, CA · On-site
As a Founding Engineer, you will collaborate with the founders to shape the product architecture and vision, while having the opportunity to engage in research and customer interaction.
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$152K/yr
They are seeking a Founding Engineer who will ship end-to-end products and own features from idea to production while shaping the product, tech, and culture alongside the founders. Responsibilities ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$152K/yr
They are seeking a Founding Engineer who will ship end-to-end products and own features from idea to production while shaping the product, tech, and culture alongside the founders. Responsibilities ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
We're seeking a Founding Software Engineer for an early staged AI & LLM startup based in San Francisco. About the Role * Hands on experience developing technology using Python * A builder of business ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
We're seeking a Founding Software Engineer for an early staged AI & LLM startup based in San Francisco. About the Role * Hands on experience developing technology using Python * A builder of business ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
Cardinal is the AI platform for precision outbound, and they are seeking a Founding Engineer to architect and build core AI agents and infrastructure. The role involves working directly with ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
Cardinal is the AI platform for precision outbound, and they are seeking a Founding Engineer to architect and build core AI agents and infrastructure. The role involves working directly with ...
This is a founding engineer role on a zero-to-one product with meaningful distribution, regulatory complexity, and infrastructure leverage. You'll work closely with product, design, compliance, and ...
This is a founding engineer role on a zero-to-one product with meaningful distribution, regulatory complexity, and infrastructure leverage. You'll work closely with product, design, compliance, and ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$200K - $300K/yr
About the Role We're looking for a Founding Engineer to join a fast-moving early-stage startup in San Francisco. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role where you'll help build the product from ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$200K - $300K/yr
About the Role We're looking for a Founding Engineer to join a fast-moving early-stage startup in San Francisco. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role where you'll help build the product from ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site +1
$152K/yr
The role We're hiring a Founding FullStack Engineer to build V1 products end to end. You'll work in a fast, handson environment, iterating quickly with customers to solve real clinical workflow ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site +1
$152K/yr
The role We're hiring a Founding FullStack Engineer to build V1 products end to end. You'll work in a fast, handson environment, iterating quickly with customers to solve real clinical workflow ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$140K - $210K/yr
Medical
Dental
Vision
Retirement
Founding Engineer Terac helps teams reach faster research breakthroughs through our marketplace of verified experts. We are building agents to recruit, verify, and match 10,000s experts with 1000s of ...
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$140K - $210K/yr
Medical
Dental
Vision
Retirement
Founding Engineer Terac helps teams reach faster research breakthroughs through our marketplace of verified experts. We are building agents to recruit, verify, and match 10,000s experts with 1000s of ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$152K/yr
Jinba is a startup that focuses on enterprise workflow automation platforms, and they are seeking a Founding Engineer to build both frontend and backend systems. The role involves architecting ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$152K/yr
Jinba is a startup that focuses on enterprise workflow automation platforms, and they are seeking a Founding Engineer to build both frontend and backend systems. The role involves architecting ...
San Francisco, CA · Hybrid
$250K/yr
Founding Engineer San Francisco, CA · On-site · Full-time Compensation: $250,000 + 10% equity About the Company Our client is an early-stage, bootstrapped legal technology company reinventing how ...
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San Francisco, CA · Hybrid
$250K/yr
Founding Engineer San Francisco, CA · On-site · Full-time Compensation: $250,000 + 10% equity About the Company Our client is an early-stage, bootstrapped legal technology company reinventing how ...
$29.6K - $37.5K
2% of jobs
$37.5K - $45.4K
10% of jobs
$50.6K is the 25th percentile. Wages below this are outliers.
$45.4K - $53.3K
20% of jobs
$53.3K - $61.2K
13% of jobs
The median wage is $63.2K / yr.
$61.2K - $69.1K
21% of jobs
$74.2K is the 75th percentile. Wages above this are outliers.
$69.1K - $77K
14% of jobs
$77K - $84.9K
7% of jobs
$84.9K - $92.8K
5% of jobs
$92.8K - $100.7K
3% of jobs
$100.7K - $108.6K
2% of jobs
$108.6K - $116.5K
2% of jobs
$29.6K
$68.5K
$116.5K
As a Founding Engineer, you’ll often be tasked with building a product from the ground up while balancing rapid development with long-term technical vision. Resource constraints and evolving product requirements can require creative problem-solving and the ability to prioritize effectively. You’ll work closely with the founding team, making pivotal decisions that shape both technology and culture, so adaptability and a hands-on approach are important. While the environment can be demanding and ambiguous, it also offers unique opportunities to learn, take ownership, and have a major impact on the success of the company.
A Founding Engineer is one of the first technical hires at a startup, responsible for building the company's core products and setting the foundation for its technology stack. They work closely with the founders, making key architectural decisions, writing production-ready code, and often wearing multiple hats across engineering, product, and strategy. This role requires a mix of deep technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and adaptability to thrive in a fast-paced, early-stage environment.
To thrive as a Founding Engineer, you need deep expertise in software development, system architecture, and product design, typically backed by experience with startups or building products from scratch. Familiarity with modern programming languages, cloud platforms, and agile tools such as Git, AWS, and Jira is often essential. Exceptional problem-solving, strong ownership mentality, and the ability to communicate clearly in fast-paced, unstructured environments set standout candidates apart. These skills are crucial because Founding Engineers must quickly turn vision into reality, adapt to changing needs, and help establish the technical foundation of a new company.
The most popular types of Founding Engineer jobs in California are:
For Founding Engineer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
The top searched job categories for Founding Engineer jobs in California are:
Cities in California with the most Founding Engineer job openings:
$150K - $220K/yr
Full-time
Re-posted 26 days ago
A seed-stage AI data infrastructure startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer with 1+ years of professional experience shipping to production. This is a foundational hire at an early-stage company building a people-data and agent platform — you'll have real ownership, work directly with leadership, and help shape the technical direction of the product as it scales toward Series A. Ideal for a high-agency, first-principles thinker who thrives in ambiguity and has founder aspirations.
What You'll DoDesign, build, and operate core infrastructure powering a people-data and AI agent platform, including APIs, LLM-powered workflows, scraping systems, and large-scale knowledge graph architecture.
Architect and maintain production-grade systems capable of handling millions of API requests, with a strong focus on performance, cost efficiency, and reliability across cloud and Linux server environments.
Own projects end-to-end — from ambiguous problem definition through deployment and iteration — shipping quickly without sacrificing system integrity.
Collaborate directly with the CEO and CTO on technical decisions, roadmap priorities, and foundational architectural choices that will define the company's long-term direction.
Contribute broadly across the stack, including developer documentation, technical tutorials, internal tooling, and experimental builds that showcase and stress-test platform APIs.
Required: 1+ years of professional experience shipping software to production.
Hands-on experience with APIs, distributed systems, microservices, and data pipelines.
Comfort working with LLMs, AI agents, and knowledge graph or identity resolution systems is a strong plus.
Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP) and Linux server environments.
Strong instincts for performance, reliability, and cost-efficient system design.
High agency — you move fast, take ownership, and operate well with limited direction.
First-principles thinker who is energized by building 0-to-1 in a fast-moving environment.
Salary: $150,000 – $220,000 USD annually
Early-stage equity as a founding team member
Note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this role
This is an on-site role based in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be available to work in-person.
