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Founding Engineer Jobs in Berkeley, CA (NOW HIRING)

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 ...

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 ...

Kino AI

Founding Engineer

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 ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

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 ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

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 ...

Interface

Founding Engineer

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 ...

Cascade

Founding Engineer

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 ...

Cardinal

Founding Engineer

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 ...

Ploy

Founding Engineer

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 ...

Hirevouch

Founding Engineer

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 ...

Jinba (YC W26)

Founding Engineer

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 ...

AngelList

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA

$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 ...

Terac

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$140K - $210K/yr

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 ...

Terac

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$140K - $210K/yr

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 ...

HMBL

Founding Engineer

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 ...

HMBL

Founding Engineer

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 ...

AngelList

Founding Engineer

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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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 Aug 29, 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 are popular job titles related to Founding Engineer jobs in Berkeley, CA?

For Founding Engineer jobs in Berkeley, CA, the most frequently searched job titles 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, 9% Part Time, and 5% Contract. Highlights an 88% In-person, 2% Hybrid, and 10% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $84,930 per year, or $40.8 per hour.

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA • On-site

Clera
1 - 10 employees
Learn more about Cleraexternal

$150K - $250K/yr

Full-time

Re-posted 8 days ago

Job description

About the Role
Join a well-funded (Series A/B), stealth-stage consumer tech startup building an AI-powered map and social discovery platform. The product helps people figure out where to go and what to do - combining one of the largest structured indices of real-world places and events with a clever, social product experience.
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 someone who thrives in ambiguity and moves fast.
What You'll Work On
  • Search and ranking at massive scale (200M+ places, millions of events)
  • Recommendations and personalization of places and events using embeddings, structured data, and social signals
  • Real-time infrastructure - chat, presence, and location systems that feel instantaneous
  • AI agent pipelines that plan, retrieve, and reason over diverse data sources
  • Map display algorithms that determine what deserves attention
  • Data pipelines that structure large volumes of unstructured web data for novel product experiences
  • Pushing Elasticsearch and vector search to sub-100ms latency across large datasets
Engineering Tracks
You don't need to fit neatly into one area - most people here won't.
Application Engineer (Full-Stack)
  • Build fast, expressive interfaces across mobile and web
  • Own features end-to-end from UI to backend
  • Tools: TypeScript, React, React Native, iOS/Android

Data / AI Engineer
  • Build the intelligence layer - search, ranking, pipelines, and agent systems
  • Design systems that operate over large-scale, messy real-world data
  • Tools: Python, TypeScript, Elasticsearch, Snowflake, LLMs, embeddings, retrieval and recommendation systems
What We're Looking For
  • 0-5 years of professional software engineering experience
  • Proven experience building real-time or low-latency production systems
  • Proficiency in search, ranking algorithms, and related infrastructure
  • Experience with data processing pipelines, ML/AI workflows, or data engineering
  • Track record of infrastructure and performance optimization at scale
  • Prior experience at early-stage startups; comfortable operating with high ambiguity
  • Ability to own features end-to-end with cross-functional collaboration (product, design, engineering)
  • Strong problem-solving and fast decision-making in fast-paced environments
  • You care about how something feels, not just whether it works
Compensation & Benefits
  • Salary: $150,000 - $250,000 USD annually
  • Equity as a founding team member
Location
  • San Francisco, CA - on-site required
  • Candidates must be located in or willing to relocate to San Francisco
  • No visa sponsorship available - must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship

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