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Founding Team Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Venture Up

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$170K - $250K/yr

They're looking for a backend-leaning Founding Engineer to join the early team and help build the core infrastructure from the ground up. What You'll Do: 🤖 Build Infrastructure for AI Agents ...

Aria Voice

Founding Sales Representative

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

You'll work closely with the founding team to identify prospects, test outreach strategies, learn what resonates with different industries, and help us develop a repeatable sales process. You'll have ...

New

Ryvn

Founding Software Engineer

Manhattan, NY · On-site

As a Founding Software Engineer, you will design and build distributed systems, working closely with the founding team to define the technical architecture and product roadmap. Responsibilities : • ...

Dragonfly

Founding Engineer - Dragonfly Portfolio

The role involves leading development across the core app, SDKs, and third-party integrations while working directly with the founding team on product, architecture, and roadmap. Responsibilities ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $200K/yr

About the Role This is the first full-time engineering hire outside the founding team at an early-stage AI/ML startup building tools that automatically detect failures in agent conversations and ...

Fabrion

DevOps Engineer (Founding Team)

Bodega Bay, CA · On-site

$62.50 - $85.75/hr

DevOps Engineer (Founding Team) Location: San Francisco Bay Area Type: Full-Time Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity (founding tier) Backed by 8VC, we're building a world-class team ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $220K/yr

You'll work directly with the founding team - including the CEO and CTO - owning critical systems that power a people-data and agent platform used by developers and enterprises alike. This is a rare ...

David Joseph & Company

Founding Engineer

New York, NY · On-site

This is an early founding-team seat with the chance to own a full product domain from day one. Founded 2024 · ~7 people · Industry: AI, Marketplace, Consumer, B2B, Education The Role As a founding ...

HIKINEX

Founding Design Engineer

San Francisco, CA

Working directly with the founding team, you'll help shape the future of an AI-native enterprise platform by combining exceptional product design with hands-on frontend engineering. What You'll Do

Hikinex

Founding Design Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

Working directly with the founding team, you'll help shape the future of an AI-native enterprise platform by combining exceptional product design with hands-on frontend engineering. What You'll Do

Clera

Founding Engineer Intern

San Francisco, CA · On-site

Collaborate with the founding team to design and ship components of an agentic AI system. * Talk to users and measure impact on hiring speed to drive rapid iteration. * Thrive in a founder-paced ...

twenty80.io

Founding Full Stack Engineer

Boston, MA · On-site +1

$150K - $190K/yr

This role will work closely with the founding team to design, develop, and ship the initial versions of the platform while laying the technical foundation for future growth. This position offers high ...

Clera

Founding Engineer Intern

San Francisco, CA · On-site

Collaborate with the founding team to design and ship components of an agentic AI system. * Talk to users and measure impact on hiring speed to drive rapid iteration. * Thrive in a founder-paced ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $220K/yr

You'll work directly with the founding team -- including the CEO and CTO -- owning critical systems that power a people-data and agent platform used by developers and enterprises alike. This is a ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $200K/yr

About the Role This is the first full-time engineering hire outside the founding team at an early-stage AI/ML startup building tools that automatically detect failures in agent conversations and ...

twenty80.io

Founding Full Stack Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site +1

$150K - $190K/yr

This role will work closely with the founding team to design, develop, and ship the initial versions of the platform while laying the technical foundation for future growth. This position offers high ...

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How much do founding team jobs pay per hour?

As of Sep 2, 2026, the average hourly pay for founding team in the United States is $23.23, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $16.35 and $27.64 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a founding team?

The founding team of a startup refers to the original group of individuals who come together to create and launch a new company. These members are typically responsible for shaping the business idea, setting the initial vision, and building the foundational structure of the organization. Founding team members often include the co-founders and may cover key roles like CEO, CTO, or CMO, depending on the startup’s needs. Their contributions are crucial in securing early funding, making strategic decisions, and establishing the company culture. The success of a startup often hinges on the skills, dedication, and chemistry of the founding team.

What are some unique challenges members of a founding team typically face in the early stages of a startup?

Members of a founding team often face the challenge of wearing multiple hats, meaning they may need to handle diverse responsibilities ranging from product development to marketing and operations. The pace is fast, and priorities can shift quickly as the business adapts to feedback and changing market conditions. Founders also need to be comfortable with ambiguity and resource constraints, collaborating closely with each other to make critical decisions with limited information. Strong communication and trust within the team are essential for overcoming these hurdles and driving the company forward.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a founding team member, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Founding Team member, you need a blend of entrepreneurial mindset, business acumen, and expertise in your startup’s core industry, often supplemented by advanced degrees or relevant startup experience. Familiarity with tools like financial modeling software, project management platforms, and CRM systems is highly valuable. Exceptional leadership, resilience, adaptability, and strong communication are crucial soft skills that set successful founding teams apart. These skills and qualities are vital for navigating uncertainty, driving innovation, and building a solid foundation for the company’s growth.
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Founding Team jobs near you
Infographic showing various Founding Team job openings in the United States as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 76% Full Time, 20% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 91% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 7% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $48,314 per year, or $23.2 per hour.

Founding Engineer

Venture Up

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$170K - $250K/yr

Other

This job post has expired 1 day ago. Applications are no longer accepted.

Job description

Founding Engineer: Build the Email Infrastructure for AI Agents


What happens when millions of AI agents need their own email addresses? We're not talking about adding AI to Gmail — we're talking about rebuilding email infrastructure specifically for a world where AI agents communicate, authenticate and operate autonomously.


A fast-growing, $6M-funded startup in San Francisco is building exactly that: an API-first email platform that lets developers create and manage inboxes for AI agents at scale.

They're looking for a backend-leaning Founding Engineer to join the early team and help build the core infrastructure from the ground up.


What You'll Do:

🤖 Build Infrastructure for AI Agents – Design the APIs and backend systems agents use to communicate, authenticate and interact with the real world.

⚡ Own 0→1 Projects – Take major projects from idea through system design to production, from IMAP integrations to usage-based pricing infrastructure.

🏗 Solve Hard Backend Problems – Work across distributed systems, databases, developer tooling and email protocols while processing hundreds of thousands of emails every day.

🚀 Shape the Product – Work directly with customers, propose new products and growth experiments, and help determine what the company builds next.


What They're Looking For:

✔ 0–5 years of software engineering experience, with flexibility for exceptional candidates outside this range.

✔ Strong backend engineering skills and experience shipping production software at a leading tech company or high-growth startup.

✔ Evidence you've built things from 0→1 and can independently own projects end-to-end.

✔ Comfortable working across the stack when required, although the role is approximately 80% backend.

✔ Excited by early-stage startups, high ownership and building directly alongside a founding team.


Why Join?

💰 $170,000–$250,000 base

📈 0.5–1% founding-team equity

🏢 Five days per week in San Francisco, building alongside a small, ambitious team.

🚀 $6M raised to build a new category of infrastructure for the rapidly growing AI agent ecosystem.


This isn't about putting an AI assistant inside an existing email product. It's about building the underlying email infrastructure that AI agents themselves will use — and joining early enough to shape how that infrastructure gets built.

Apply