ZipRecruiter

Log In

1

Founding Engineer Jobs in Berkeley, CA (NOW HIRING)

Pear

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$140K - $200K/yr

You'll be our founding engineer, with an outsized role in how the product, company, and engineering culture evolve. You'll write code, but you'll also: * Talk to customers and join pilot calls * Turn ...

Brainbase Labs

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

As a Founding Engineer, you will play a crucial role in developing new features, gathering user feedback, and enhancing the company's AI infrastructure while collaborating closely with the CEO and ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $250K/yr

About the Role This is a founding engineering role at a YC-backed enterprise AI startup building an agentic operating system that deploys AI agents at scale for businesses. You'll operate with CTO ...

Unbound

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

Unbound is a company focused on building exceptional products and enhancing customer experience, and they are seeking a Founding Engineer to engage in hands-on coding and develop features across the ...

Salv AI

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

As a Founding Engineer, you will be responsible for designing, developing, and deploying scalable backend systems and microservices that form the backbone of our AI solutions. Responsibilities : • ...

a16z speedrun

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $200K/yr

About the Role We're looking for a founding engineer to own the software at the center of Taya: the app people open every day to capture, search, and relive their memories. We have a working iOS app ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $200K/yr

About the Role This is the first full-time engineering hire outside the founding team at an early-stage AI/ML startup building tools that automatically detect failures in agent conversations and ...

David Joseph & Company

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · Hybrid

$160K - $200K/yr

Founded 2024 · ~12 people · Industry: B2B SaaS, AI, Fintech The Role As a Founding Engineer, you would join a small, product-minded engineering team and own core features end-to-end for a fast ...

Raydar

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $300K/yr

We are hiring a Founding Engineer to become the company's first technical hire and build the product from prototype through MVP launch. You will own the architecture, stack, and technical standards ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $200K/yr

About the Role This is the first full-time engineering hire outside the founding team at an early-stage AI/ML startup building tools that automatically detect failures in agent conversations and ...

Physical AI

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

We're now hiring the founding engineers on our team --* not the fortieth --* and you'd be building next to us from day one. What you'll own * The product architecture, services and storage solutions ...

New

Kontigo (YC S24)

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

Kontigo is a startup company in the Y Combinator S24 batch, and they are seeking a Founding Engineer to join their team. The role requires a strong focus on developing applications using Next.js ...

MathDash

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

MathDash is a company focused on enhancing education through technology, and they are seeking a Founding Engineer to join their team. The role involves designing, developing, and maintaining the ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $250K/yr

As a Founding Engineer , you'll own problems end-to-end, work directly with founders, and make architectural decisions that shape the core system. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role for ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $250K/yr

As a Founding Engineer , you'll own problems end-to-end, work directly with founders, and make architectural decisions that shape the core system. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role for ...

previous pagenext page

Showing results 21-40

All JobsFounding Engineer JobsFounding Engineer Jobs in Berkeley, CA

Founding Engineer information

See Berkeley, CA salary details

$36.7K

$84.9K

$144.5K

How much do founding engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 3, 2026, the average yearly pay for founding engineer in Berkeley, CA is $84,930.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $63,100.00 and $96,100.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a founding engineer?

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.

What are the biggest challenges a founding engineer typically faces at an early-stage startup?

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.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the founding engineer position, and why are they important?

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.

What are the most commonly searched types of Founding Engineer jobs in Berkeley, CA?

The most popular types of Founding Engineer jobs in Berkeley, CA are:

What cities near Berkeley, CA are hiring for Founding Engineer jobs?

Cities near Berkeley, CA with the most Founding Engineer job openings:

Founding Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Founding Engineer job openings in Berkeley, CA as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 86% Full Time, 11% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 86% Physical, 5% Hybrid, and 9% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $84,930 per year, or $40.8 per hour.

Founding Engineer

Pear

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$140K - $200K/yr

Full-time

Re-posted 7 days ago

Job description

The Opportunity
Companies have spent billions on AI tools and tokens. Almost none of them can prove it's working. 95% of organizations report zero measurable return from their AI investments. Not because the tools are bad, but because nobody redesigned the workflows, coached the teams, or measured what actually changed.
Modo is the AI success layer for the enterprise. We sit inside the flow of work, capture how teams actually use AI, guide them in the moment, and give leaders the ROI analytics to understand which AI tools and workflows are actually creating value.
Today, Modo helps companies drive AI adoption and prove ROI inside real workflows. As we capture more workflow context, Modo becomes the layer understanding how work actually gets done across teams, tools, and AI, which allows companies to build proprietary custom agents grounded in their own workflows.
We are a Seed stage startup, raised from One Way Ventures, Pear VC, Peterson Ventures, JFF Ventures, and a strong group of institutional investors and strategic operators. Now we need to build fast enough to match customer demand.
The Role
This is not a typical engineering role. You'll be our founding engineer, with an outsized role in how the product, company, and engineering culture evolve.
You'll write code, but you'll also:
  • Talk to customers and join pilot calls
  • Turn feedback into product changes the same week
  • Influence the roadmap directly
  • Help close deals by building what matters fast
  • Own features end-to-end, from prototype to production

In your first 90 days, you'll:
  • Ship production code to real pilot customers in your first weeks
  • Build the core product surfaces: employee-facing guidance UX and manager dashboard
  • Work across the stack (TypeScript, React, Next.js, Postgres, Electron/Tauri)
  • Wire up LLM features that actually work in production, not just in a demo
  • Set up the telemetry and eval systems that make our insights credible

In 6 months, you'll:
  • Own large product surface areas end-to-end
  • Help convert pilots into paying contracts with your product work
  • Drive the reliability and quality bar that enterprise buyers expect
  • Start shaping engineering culture and hiring as we grow the team

In 12 months, you'll:
  • Architect key parts of the system
  • Be known by name to our biggest customers
  • Opportunity to lead engineering as we scale past our seed round

Competitive salary, meaningful early equity, and the chance to grow into an engineering leadership role as we scale.
Who We Want
  • Shipping full-stack production-ready products in fast-moving environments
  • Strong with TypeScript, React, Next.js, backend APIs, and Postgres
  • Comfortable building across web and desktop (Electron, Tauri, or similar)
  • Has built LLM-powered features in production, not just prototyped with them
  • Production habits: CI/CD, testing, observability, pragmatic system design
  • Native with AI coding agents (Claude Code/Codex)
  • Obsessive about customer needs, not just abstract "users"
  • Comfortable debugging, writing tests, talking to customers, and jumping on a pilot call

Bonus: Experience with building browser-based automation tools or developer/enterprise tools.
The Team
You'll join Johnny Chang (Stanford top AI agent research, taught most Stanford AI flagship courses with professors like Andrew Ng) and Angelina You (Meta data science, Stanford MS Eng, product growth at CircleCI) as the founding engineer. Product, engineering, and customer work all run through the same room.
We're backed by One Way Ventures, Pear VC, Peterson Ventures, JFF Ventures, and many more institutional funds and strategic angels.
Why Modo
  • Founding team member. Shape culture, product, and technology from the ground up.
  • Real ownership. Your code ships to enterprise customers from week one.
  • Leadership trajectory. Designed to grow into a leading engineering role.
  • In-person around SF. We believe great teams build faster together.
  • Competitive pay + early equity. Rewarded for the outsized impact you'll have.

How to Apply
Email johnny@joinmodo.com with:
  • Your GitHub
  • Your Resume
  • 2 to 3 links to things you've shipped (projects, products, demos, write-ups)
  • A short note on the most impressive thing you've built

Apply