San Francisco, CA · On-site
$140K - $220K/yr
As a Founding Engineer , you won't be handed a narrow backlog. You'll own problems end to end: talking directly to customers, figuring out what to build, and shipping it. You'll shape the product ...
Quick apply
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$140K - $220K/yr
As a Founding Engineer , you won't be handed a narrow backlog. You'll own problems end to end: talking directly to customers, figuring out what to build, and shipping it. You'll shape the product ...
The Founding Engineer will develop full-stack applications, implement machine learning algorithms, and design cloud infrastructure to enhance user engagement and optimize sales processes.
The Founding Engineer will develop full-stack applications, implement machine learning algorithms, and design cloud infrastructure to enhance user engagement and optimize sales processes.
San Francisco, CA · On-site
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to help tackle interesting engineering challenges and contribute to the development of AI-driven solutions. Qualifications : Required : • You have startup ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
They are seeking a Founding Engineer to help tackle interesting engineering challenges and contribute to the development of AI-driven solutions. Qualifications : Required : • You have startup ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
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
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 ...
They are seeking a Founding Engineer with backend and infrastructure focus to architect systems for agents as the end users. Responsibilities : • Design APIs that are intuitive for both humans and ...
They are seeking a Founding Engineer with backend and infrastructure focus to architect systems for agents as the end users. Responsibilities : • Design APIs that are intuitive for both humans 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 ...
New York, NY · Remote
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-stage AI startup operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence and hardware engineering is looking for a Founding Engineer to own the entire technical execution of ...
Quick apply
New York, NY · Remote
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-stage AI startup operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence and hardware engineering is looking for a Founding Engineer to own the entire technical execution of ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
The Founding Engineer will design and implement scalable backend systems, develop REST APIs, and collaborate with teams to integrate machine learning models into production. Responsibilities : • ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
The Founding Engineer will design and implement scalable backend systems, develop REST APIs, and collaborate with teams to integrate machine learning models into production. Responsibilities : • ...
$94K - $127K/yr
Medical
Dental
Vision
Retirement
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.
$94K - $127K/yr
Medical
Dental
Vision
Retirement
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.
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site +1
The Role We're looking for our first Founding Engineer who will define Athena as much as the founder does and help build both the product and the technical foundation at Athena. You'll spend more ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site +1
The Role We're looking for our first Founding Engineer who will define Athena as much as the founder does and help build both the product and the technical foundation at Athena. You'll spend more ...
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$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 ...
Quick apply
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$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
$201K/yr
Early or founding engineer experience. Experience at FAANG or other Big Tech companies in addition to startup experience.
Quick apply
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
$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 ...
Quick apply
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 ...
New York, NY · On-site
$200K - $250K/yr
Join our Founding Team to impact real lives We are looking for ambitious and relentless engineers to join us on this mission. Whereas at other companies you may be working on the next widget ...
New York, NY · On-site
$200K - $250K/yr
Join our Founding Team to impact real lives We are looking for ambitious and relentless engineers to join us on this mission. Whereas at other companies you may be working on the next widget ...
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 ...
New York, NY · On-site
$150K - $200K/yr
We're now looking for our founding engineer to help us build the product that can support and continue to drive our early growth. Ideal candidates have a founder mentality and strong ownership. You ...
New York, NY · On-site
$150K - $200K/yr
We're now looking for our founding engineer to help us build the product that can support and continue to drive our early growth. Ideal candidates have a founder mentality and strong ownership. You ...
New York, NY · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-stage AI startup operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence and hardware engineering is looking for a Founding Engineer to own the entire technical execution of ...
New York, NY · On-site
$150K - $220K/yr
About the Role A seed-stage AI startup operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence and hardware engineering is looking for a Founding Engineer to own the entire technical execution of ...
$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
$54K - $62K
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
$102K - $110K
2% of jobs
$110K - $118K
2% of jobs
$30K
$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.
Cities with the most Founding Engineer job openings:
The most popular types of Founding Engineer jobs are:
States with the most job openings for Founding Engineer jobs include:
The top searched job categories for Founding Engineer jobs are:
$140K - $220K/yr
Full-time
This job post has expired today. Applications are no longer accepted.
This is the first engineering hire at a fast-moving, early-stage B2B SaaS company closing the deployment gap for industrial operations. The platform automates critical back-office and sales workflows — quoting, order entry, sales intelligence, and more — for distributors and manufacturers. The product is already live with enterprise customers, and demand for the next wave of automation is growing fast.
As a Founding Engineer, you won't be handed a narrow backlog. You'll own problems end to end: talking directly to customers, figuring out what to build, and shipping it. You'll shape the product, the codebase, and the engineering culture from the ground up.
What You'll DoOwn features and problems completely — from customer conversations through design, implementation, and deployment.
Work across customer-facing features, AI agents, third-party integrations, and cloud infrastructure.
Build and improve the evals, tests, and tooling that make each new customer implementation faster and more reliable.
Week one: Ship your first feature to a live customer.
Month one: Get on a customer call, identify a real problem, design and implement a solution.
Quarter one: Own a meaningful, end-to-end surface area of the product.
Must-haves:
Full-stack experience building and shipping production web applications with TypeScript, Next.js, and Python.
Demonstrated experience building production-ready AI agents, including context engineering, tool design, and evaluation frameworks.
Experience deploying and managing applications on Google Cloud Platform.
Experience integrating with legacy systems, third-party APIs, and enterprise software platforms (e.g. ERPs, CRMs).
Proven ability to conduct customer discovery, gather requirements, and translate messy business problems into clean technical solutions.
Experience building and maintaining automated testing, evaluation frameworks, and observability tooling for production systems.
Comfort working in early-stage startup environments — small teams, rapid iteration, high ownership.
Nice-to-haves:
Experience with LLM frameworks, prompt engineering, or AI agent orchestration tools.
Familiarity with ERP systems, manufacturing workflows, or B2B operations automation.
Experience building integrations with enterprise data or workflow systems.
The right fit: You prefer owning whole problems over working from narrowly defined specs. You're energised by direct customer interaction. You stay current with the bleeding edge of AI tooling while maintaining strong engineering judgment. You thrive without a large team around you.
Compensation & BenefitsSalary: $140,000 – $220,000 USD annually
Equity commensurate with a founding engineer role
Visa sponsorship available
On-site in San Francisco, CA. This is an in-person role — the team works closely together in the office.
