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Founding Software Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Simple AI Lab Company

Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$130K - $280K/yr

We are growing revenue like crazy and looking to hire a couple founding software engineers to help us stay afloat of current customer demand and also build out systems for the future. We are very ...

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 ...

Zania, Inc

Founding Senior Software Engineer

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

$120K - $230K/yr

Founding Software Engineer (Mid-Senior Level) Why Zania Every enterprise spends millions of dollars on Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). It's one of the most critical, yet universally painful ...

HMBL

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA

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

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 ...

Gradient Robotics

Senior Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$144K - $190K/yr

About the role We're looking for a Founding Software Engineer to own how Gradient Robotics moves data from AI models to actuators. You'll work close to the hardware, from kernel and firmware up ...

Miravoice

Founding Engineer

Palo Alto, CA

What We're Looking For We're looking for strong generalist founding software engineers who are driven, independent, and want to push the boundaries of Voice AI at a breakneck pace. The skill we care ...

Lever Demo 2

Software Engineer

Palo Alto, CA · On-site

You will be a founding member of the engineering team. You will be responsible for working with the ... Knowledge of modern software engineering best practices in algorithms, data structures, and clean ...

Onton

Founding Staff Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$175K - $240K/yr

Join Onton as a Founding Engineer and set the strategic foundation for our Engineering Team ... If you're a builder at heart who shares our values and is passionate about making software tools ...

Pulse Software Corp

Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$140K - $200K/yr

Prior startup or founding experience is a plus About the Role Design, build, and operate features ... software, new grads considered * Proficiency in Python or TypeScript, plus SQL * Clear ...

Box

Senior Software Engineer, Agents Platform

Redwood City, CA · On-site

$150K - $197K/yr

As a founding Software Engineer on the Core Agents team, you will build the core platform that makes agent development secure, reliable, and scalable. You'll own systems that define agent frameworks ...

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All JobsFounding Software Engineer JobsFounding Software Engineer Jobs in California

Founding Software Engineer information

See California salary details

$62.7K

$145.6K

$202.8K

How much do founding software engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 29, 2026, the average yearly pay for founding software engineer in California is $145,592.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $118,400.00 and $170,700.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are Founding Software Engineers?

Founding Software Engineers are among the first technical hires at a startup or newly formed company. They play a critical role in building the initial product, setting up the technical foundation, and often shaping the company's engineering culture and processes. In addition to coding, they may also be involved in architecture decisions, hiring, and even strategic business discussions. This role typically requires broad technical expertise, entrepreneurial spirit, and the ability to work in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.

What are some unique challenges faced by Founding Software Engineers in an early-stage startup environment?

Founding Software Engineers in early-stage startups often navigate rapidly shifting priorities and must wear multiple hats, from architecting core systems to handling on-call troubleshooting. The role typically requires balancing the need for quick feature delivery with building scalable, maintainable code. Close collaboration with co-founders and other early team members is essential, as decisions made at this stage have a lasting impact on the product and company culture. Adaptability, strong communication, and ownership are key, as resource constraints and ambiguity are common.

What is the difference between Founding Software Engineer vs Software Engineer?

AspectFounding Software EngineerSoftware Engineer
Required CredentialsBachelor's or higher in CS or related field; startup experience often preferredBachelor's degree in CS or related field; entry to mid-level experience
Work EnvironmentEarly-stage startup, high responsibility, flexible rolesEstablished companies or startups, structured teams, defined roles
Employer & Industry UsageFounding teams of startups, tech companiesTech firms, corporations, startups
Search & Comparison IntentUnderstanding startup roles, early-stage responsibilitiesStandard software development roles, career progression

The main difference is that a Founding Software Engineer is an early team member in a startup, often taking on broader responsibilities and helping shape the company's technical foundation. A Software Engineer typically works within established teams on specific projects, with more defined roles and responsibilities.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Founding Software Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Founding Software Engineer, you need deep expertise in software architecture, full-stack development, and problem-solving, often demonstrated by a strong technical background and relevant degrees. Familiarity with cloud platforms, version control systems (like Git), and modern programming languages or frameworks is essential, along with startup exposure or experience. Initiative, adaptability, and outstanding communication are crucial soft skills for shaping the product vision and collaborating in a small, fast-moving team. These capabilities are vital for efficiently building robust products from scratch and driving early-stage company growth.
What are popular job titles related to Founding Software Engineer jobs in California? For Founding Software Engineer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Founding Software Engineer jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Founding Software Engineer jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Founding Software Engineer jobs? Cities in California with the most Founding Software Engineer job openings:
Founding Software Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Founding Software Engineer job openings in California as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 93% Full Time, 4% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 89% Physical, 4% Hybrid, and 7% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $145,592 per year, or $70 per hour.

Founding Software Engineer - Backend

Hypercubic, Inc

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$125K - $300K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO

Posted 7 days ago

Job description

We are looking for a founding backend engineer with unusually strong engineering and design taste.
The world's most critical infrastructure-banking, airlines, utilities-is held together by millions of lines of COBOL and mainframe logic written decades ago. The engineers who built it are retiring and the documentation is fading. These systems are "too big to fail" and "too complex to change," leaving global infrastructure frozen in the 1970s.
At Hypercubic, we're building AI systems that can understand, reason about, and rearchitect large-scale legacy applications. We work at the intersection of program analysis, knowledge extraction, and agentic systems, applied to some of the most critical enterprise software in the world.
Learn why we're excited about mainframe modernization.
About the Role
We're looking for a backend engineer with unusually strong engineering and design taste. You will work directly with the CTO to design, prototype, and productionize AI-powered systems from first principles. This is a founding role with meaningful ownership over architecture, product direction, and engineering culture. It is suited for someone with strong fundamentals and comfortable operating across abstraction layers, from low-level system reasoning to high-level interactions.
What You'll Do
  • Rapidly prototype new concepts and features to validate ideas before full implementation.
  • Ship AI-driven features end to end, from model interaction to user-facing workflows.
  • Set early engineering standards around testing, reliability, and code quality.
  • Translate ambiguous problem statements into concrete experiments, constraints, and working systems.
  • Lead architecture decisions and long-term technical direction with the CTO.
  • Collaborate with a highly diverse group of subject matter experts and customers from various industries (banks, insurance, airlines, and more).

You are a Fit if...
  • You care deeply about your work and the product.
  • You are comfortable with uncertainty and enjoy figuring out what to build before how to build it.
  • You have built complex agentic products or infrastructure.
  • You think in systems and feedback loops, not just features.
  • You can move fast and slow. Prototyping ideas in hours, then building enterprise-grade features to a high-quality bar.
  • You want to become world-class at AI engineering.
  • You have a bias for action and a track record of working in fast-paced environments with urgency.
Nice to Have
  • Strong testing intuition, including TDD and property-based testing.
  • Experience building and maintaining production-grade agentic or autonomous systems.
  • Exposure to legacy systems (especially mainframes or COBOL), compilers, program analysis techniques, or high-performance computing (HPC).
  • Familiarity with enterprise software constraints.
Logistics
  • Location: This role is in-person based in San Francisco, California.
  • Benefits: Hypercubic offers generous health, dental, and vision benefits, PTO, and relocation support as needed.
  • Sponsorship: Unfortunately, we are unable to sponsor new H1B employment visas at this time. However, we can support H1B transfers and OPT.

Apply