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Founding Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

About the Role An early-stage, AI-native procurement intelligence startup based in Berlin is looking for a Founding Engineer to join the core product team. You'll own critical product areas end-to ...

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$175K - $225K/yr

About the Role Join a fast-moving, early-stage consumer AI startup as a Founding Engineer -- a rare, high-impact position working directly alongside the founder. This is a true 1-of-1 opportunity to ...

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 ...

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 ...

Founding Engineer

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 ...

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 ...

Our founding team is made up of pioneers in AI agents - staff and principal engineers who built foundational systems in the early days of Facebook, Databricks, LangChain, and Brex. CEO is a 2x ...

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$152K/yr

The role We're hiring a Founding Full‑Stack Engineer to build V1 products end to end. You'll work in a fast, hands‑on environment, iterating quickly with customers to solve real clinical workflow ...

Founding Engineer

New York, NY · On-site

$150K - $350K/yr

Founding Engineer Location: New York, NY On-site | Full-time Compensation: $150K - $350K Our client is a high-growth, venture-backed startup on a mission to reinvent technical interviewing and ...

Founding Engineer

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 ...

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Founding Engineer information

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$30K

$69.4K

$118K

How much do founding engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jun 6, 2026, the average yearly pay for founding engineer in the United States is $69,362.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $51,500.00 and $78,500.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

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 is a Founding Engineer job?

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 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.

More about Founding Engineer jobs
What cities are hiring for Founding Engineer jobs? Cities with the most Founding Engineer job openings:
What are the most commonly searched types of Founding Engineer jobs? The most popular types of Founding Engineer jobs are:
What states have the most Founding Engineer jobs? States with the most job openings for Founding Engineer jobs include:
Infographic showing various Founding Engineer job openings in the United States as of May 2026, with employment types broken down into 99% Full Time, and 1% Part Time. Highlights an 91% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 6% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $69,362 per year, or $33.3 per hour.

$200K/yr

Full-time

This job post has expired today. Applications are no longer accepted.


Job description

Join AngelList

We're solving some of the hardest problems in venture capital and private markets. You'll work with a team that values precision, urgency, and long-term thinking. If you want to shape how startups are funded and built, this is the place.

AngelList exists to accelerate innovation by increasing the number of successful startups in the world. We do this by building the financial infrastructure that makes it easier for more people to invest in world-changing companies.

AngelList is the nexus of venture capital and the startup community. We support $171B+ in assets and have powered investments into over 13,000 startups—over 300 of which are unicorns. Today, 57% of top-tier U.S. VC deals involve investors on AngelList. While our scale is large, our ambition is larger.

If you're excited to build the future of private markets, come build with us.

About the Role:

Meridian is AngelList's wealth platform for private markets. Meridian is building wealth products for the growing class of self-directed investors who want unique and direct access to private markets.

Built on more than a decade of AngelList innovation, Meridian extends the platform that already supports founders and fund managers to serve investors now. Meridian is early, and this role presents an opportunity to help shape the next generation of products for private market investing.

As a Senior Software Engineer on Meridian, you'll own the technical design and delivery of major product surfaces across investing and portfolio management, from early architecture and sequencing tradeoffs through launch and iteration. 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 supply to shape what private market investing feels like for the next decade.

We're also hiring a Founding Engineer for our new USVC product, and we will consider you for both.

You will have the opportunity to:

  • Build a category-defining wealth platform for private markets
  • Work on a 0 to 1 product with real distribution and infrastructure advantages from AngelList
  • Drive high-leverage engineering decisions early, shaping the architecture and quality bar on which Meridian will scale
  • Ship features that meaningfully increase investor engagement and investment volume
  • Collaborate as part of a small founding team, partnering closely with product, design, supply, legal, and compliance
  • Develop deep fluency in private market investing workflows and the constraints of building regulated, high-trust financial products

You most likely have:

  • 6+ years of experience building meaningful web applications
  • Experience owning large product surfaces from scratch in a 0-1 environment
  • Full-stack generalist or frontend specialist with working proficiency across the stack to unblock yourself
  • Strong technical judgment—you understand tradeoffs and aren't afraid to voice your opinions and make fast decisions
  • Experience building foundational systems, making architecture and sequencing decisions with long-term impact, and building software for two-sided marketplaces or in a regulatory domain
  • High ownership mindset, bias toward action, and comfort pushing back and debating technical decisions with a cross-functional team
  • Deep curiosity about venture capital, financial infrastructure and empowering builders

If you don't meet every requirement above, we still encourage you to apply. We value complementary strengths and operators who learn by doing.

AngelList has offices in a few cities, with our engineering hub in San Francisco. We're building our engineering and product teams around this hub to make the most of in-person collaboration. We have a hybrid in-office model: teammates come in at least 2 days per week (Tuesdays and either Wednesday or Thursday).

Compensation: The compensation for this role consists of a competitive base salary, benefits, and equity package. The base salary for this role is $200,000+ annually but actual will vary based on a number of factors including a candidate's professional background, experience, and location. Full details about our Total Rewards package will be provided during the recruitment process.

Benefits: We support your life both in and outside of work. Explore our benefits Learn about Funders & Founders

AngelList is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.