San Francisco, CA · On-site
$97K - $129K/yr
About the Role Join a pre-seed AI startup as Engineer #4 on the founding team, working directly with the CTO and fellow founding engineers. This is a high-ownership, fast-paced role where you'll ship ...
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$97K - $129K/yr
About the Role Join a pre-seed AI startup as Engineer #4 on the founding team, working directly with the CTO and fellow founding engineers. This is a high-ownership, fast-paced role where you'll ship ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$200K - $300K/yr
About the Role A fast-moving, early-stage startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer to join as one of the first technical hires. This is a rare opportunity to work directly with the ...
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$200K - $300K/yr
About the Role A fast-moving, early-stage startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer to join as one of the first technical hires. This is a rare opportunity to work directly with the ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$120K - $250K/yr
About the Role A YC-backed enterprise AI SaaS startup is looking for a Founding Engineer to join their small, high-output team in San Francisco. The company is building an agentic operating system ...
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$120K - $250K/yr
About the Role A YC-backed enterprise AI SaaS startup is looking for a Founding Engineer to join their small, high-output team in San Francisco. The company is building an agentic operating system ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$175K - $225K/yr
About the Role Join an early-stage consumer AI startup as a Founding Engineer -- a rare 1-of-1 role working directly alongside the founding team to shape both the product and engineering culture.
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$175K - $225K/yr
About the Role Join an early-stage consumer AI startup as a Founding Engineer -- a rare 1-of-1 role working directly alongside the founding team to shape both the product and engineering culture.
New York, NY · Hybrid
$120K - $180K/yr
Founding Engineer Package: $120k - $180k + equity Location: New York City (3 days per week in office) Launchpad Recruitment are partnering with a high-growth, VC-backed (GV & YC) AI-native investment ...
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New York, NY · Hybrid
$120K - $180K/yr
Founding Engineer Package: $120k - $180k + equity Location: New York City (3 days per week in office) Launchpad Recruitment are partnering with a high-growth, VC-backed (GV & YC) AI-native investment ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$120K - $250K/yr
About the Role A YC-backed enterprise AI SaaS startup is looking for a Founding Engineer to join their small, high-output team in San Francisco. The company is building an agentic operating system ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$120K - $250K/yr
About the Role A YC-backed enterprise AI SaaS startup is looking for a Founding Engineer to join their small, high-output team in San Francisco. The company is building an agentic operating system ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $225K/yr
As our Founding Engineer, you'll be a co-architect of everything we build at Blueberry. You'll be responsible for shaping the technical foundation of the company: product, platform, and team culture.
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $225K/yr
As our Founding Engineer, you'll be a co-architect of everything we build at Blueberry. You'll be responsible for shaping the technical foundation of the company: product, platform, and team culture.
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-funded B2B SaaS startup in the people-data and AI agents space is looking for a high-agency Founding Engineer to build core agent infrastructure and help scale the platform ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-funded B2B SaaS startup in the people-data and AI agents space is looking for a high-agency Founding Engineer to build core agent infrastructure and help scale the platform ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-funded B2B SaaS startup in the people-data and AI agents space is looking for a high-agency Founding Engineer to build core agent infrastructure and help scale the platform ...
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-funded B2B SaaS startup in the people-data and AI agents space is looking for a high-agency Founding Engineer to build core agent infrastructure and help scale the platform ...
$250K - $400K/yr
Founding Engineer San Francisco, CA · On-site · Full-time Compensation: $250,000-$400,000 + 0.25%-2% equity About the Company An early-stage, seed-funded startup (founded 2024, 1-10 people ...
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$250K - $400K/yr
Founding Engineer San Francisco, CA · On-site · Full-time Compensation: $250,000-$400,000 + 0.25%-2% equity About the Company An early-stage, seed-funded startup (founded 2024, 1-10 people ...
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 ...
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 ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $250K/yr
This is a true founding engineer role: you'll own core systems end-to-end, set the technical patterns every future hire builds on, and work shoulder-to-shoulder with the founders to ship reliable ...
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $250K/yr
This is a true founding engineer role: you'll own core systems end-to-end, set the technical patterns every future hire builds on, and work shoulder-to-shoulder with the founders to ship reliable ...
Founding Full Stack Engineer Job Location: San Francisco, CA (Onsite) Job Type: Full-Time Very Important: * Must work onsite 5 days/week in San Francisco * 2-5 Years of Software Engineering ...
Founding Full Stack Engineer Job Location: San Francisco, CA (Onsite) Job Type: Full-Time Very Important: * Must work onsite 5 days/week in San Francisco * 2-5 Years of Software Engineering ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$201K/yr
Early or founding engineer experience. Experience at FAANG or other Big Tech companies in addition to startup experience.
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San Francisco, CA · On-site
$201K/yr
Early or founding engineer experience. Experience at FAANG or other Big Tech companies in addition to startup experience.
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 ...
New York, NY · On-site
The Role We're looking for a founding engineer who can move fast across the stack and go deep when the problem demands it. Early on, the work will be varied: one week you might ship a scrappy 0-to-1 ...
New York, NY · On-site
The Role We're looking for a founding engineer who can move fast across the stack and go deep when the problem demands it. Early on, the work will be varied: one week you might ship a scrappy 0-to-1 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Quick apply
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Role Description As a Founding Engineer, you'll help shape both our product and our company. You'll work closely with the founders to design architecture, ship features, and define the product vision.
Role Description As a Founding Engineer, you'll help shape both our product and our company. You'll work closely with the founders to design architecture, ship features, and define the product vision.
$30K - $38K
2% of jobs
$38K - $46K
10% of jobs
$51.3K is the 25th percentile. Wages below this are outliers.
$46K - $54K
20% of jobs
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13% of jobs
The median wage is $64K / yr.
$62K - $70K
21% of jobs
$75.2K is the 75th percentile. Wages above this are outliers.
$70K - $78K
14% of jobs
$78K - $86K
7% of jobs
$86K - $94K
5% of jobs
$94K - $102K
3% of jobs
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2% of jobs
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$69.4K
$118K
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.
$97K - $129K/yr
Full-time
Posted 9 days ago
Join a pre-seed AI startup as Engineer #4 on the founding team, working directly with the CTO and fellow founding engineers. This is a high-ownership, fast-paced role where you'll ship features to production daily and own entire product areas from concept to deployment. The company is building fully agentic systems that automate complex workflows — technically challenging, high-impact work at the earliest stage.
What You'll DoShip features to production on a daily cadence
Own end-to-end product areas from initial concept through deployment
Design, build, and consume REST APIs on the backend
Build scalable frontend interfaces with React
Integrate AI/ML capabilities using providers such as OpenAI or Claude
Collaborate closely with the CTO and founding team to define technical direction
Model and manage data using PostgreSQL and Supabase
Required:
Proficiency in full-stack development with TypeScript/JavaScript and Python
Backend experience with Node.js and REST API design/consumption
Frontend experience with React for building scalable UIs
Experience with PostgreSQL and Supabase for data modeling and storage
Hands-on experience integrating AI/ML features via providers like OpenAI or Claude
Ability to thrive in a founding-stage startup environment — owning features and shipping rapidly
Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
Willingness to work on-site in San Francisco (hackerhouse environment) or commute as needed
This role is based on-site in San Francisco, CA. The team works out of a shared hackerhouse/office environment. Visa sponsorship is available.
