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Founding Team Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$175K - $225K/yr

About the Role This is a rare, high-impact founding engineer position at an early-stage consumer AI ... Set the bar for engineering quality and help recruit world-class talent to the team. * Dogfood the ...

Clera

Founding Frontend Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$55K - $65K/yr

As our Founding Frontend Engineer , you'll be the first full-time engineering hire on the frontend, working closely with the founding team to shape the product from the ground up. What You'll Do

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$175K - $225K/yr

About the Role This is a rare, high-impact founding engineer position at an early-stage consumer AI ... Set the bar for engineering quality and help recruit world-class talent to the team. * Dogfood the ...

WP Talent

Frontend Engineer - Founding Team

Manhattan, NY · On-site

$100K - $180K/yr

Our Client is an AI platform for accounting firms, providing accountants with a team of AI assistants. Accounting teams integrate Basis as part of their team, delegating core workflows and automating ...

Clera

Founding Engineer - Full Stack

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $250K/yr

About the Role Join a small, high-velocity founding team at a Y Combinator-backed AI startup building brand intelligence tooling at the intersection of AI research, product, and engineering. As a ...

Clera

Founding Engineer - Full Stack

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$150K - $250K/yr

About the Role Join a small, high-velocity founding team at a Y Combinator-backed AI startup building brand intelligence tooling at the intersection of AI research, product, and engineering. As a ...

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 ...

career

You will work directly with our CEO and founding team to build next-generation AI systems for the industrial sector. This is a hybrid role that will be based in Southern California. Responsibilities ...

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$160K - $270K/yr

You will work directly with the founding team, and your name will be on the design docs and the pull requests in the same week. The company builds a GraphDB on object storage with semantic search ...

The Perfect Light

Be Seen First

⚡ Residential Electrician Lead

Austin, TX · On-site

$65K - $120K/yr

We're looking for Residential Wiremen and Journeyman Electricians to join the founding team of our new electrical division. We're launching a new residential electrical division backed by 26 years of ...

Veteran-friendly

Urgent

Training provided

Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$160K - $270K/yr

You will work directly with the founding team, and your name will be on the design docs and the pull requests in the same week. The company builds a GraphDB on object storage with semantic search ...

The Perfect Light

Be Seen First

⚡ Residential Electrician Lead

Austin, TX · On-site

$65K - $120K/yr

We're looking for Residential Wiremen and Journeyman Electricians to join the founding team of our new electrical division. We're launching a new residential electrical division backed by 26 years of ...

Veteran-friendly

Urgent

Training provided

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 ...

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 (Potential CTO)

New York, NY · On-site

$170K/yr

This role is in-person in Montreal, San Francisco, or New York City, and is central to everything the founding team builds. What You'll Do * Serve as Founding Engineer and potential CTO, owning ...

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

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How much do founding team jobs pay per hour?

As of Jul 22, 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 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.

What are 'founding team' members in a startup?

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.
More about Founding Team jobs
What states have the most Founding Team jobs? States with the most job openings for Founding Team jobs include:
What job categories do people searching Founding Team jobs look for? The top searched job categories for Founding Team jobs are:
Founding Team jobs near you
Infographic showing various Founding Team job openings in the United States as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 15% Locum Tenens, 67% Full Time, 17% Part Time, and 1% Contract. Highlights an 93% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 5% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $48,314 per year, or $23.2 per hour.

Founding Engineer

Clera

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$175K - $225K/yr

Full-time

Re-posted 5 hours ago

Job description

About the Role
This is a rare, high-impact founding engineer position at an early-stage consumer AI startup building a real-time, AI-enabled platform to digitize human connection. You'll work directly alongside the founder - a Thiel Fellow - as one of the first engineers, shaping both the product and the engineering culture from the ground up. This is a fully on-site role in San Francisco.
You'll take on broad technical ownership across a bold consumer product focused on scalable, meaningful human interactions - integrating cutting-edge real-time video, audio, and memory systems.
What You'll Do
  • Work across all aspects of the application alongside the founder, designers, and other engineers.
  • Build new systems for memory, retrieval, proactivity, and AI responsiveness.
  • Integrate the latest internal and external real-time video generation and audio synthesis models.
  • Set the bar for engineering quality and help recruit world-class talent to the team.
  • Dogfood the product extensively - you genuinely care about real user value and quality.
What We're Looking For
Required:
  • 2-7 years of software engineering experience (not a new grad - some professional engineering experience is required).
  • Computer Science degree from a top-tier university.
  • Strong CS fundamentals.
  • High energy, exceptionally bright, and driven to build fast.
  • Proven entrepreneurial spirit - startup exposure or experience in fast-moving, ambiguous environments.
  • Track record of technically complex side projects or independent builds.
  • Comfortable with - and excited by - early-stage chaos and the demands of a founding team environment.

Nice to Have:
  • Experience with real-time media, vision or video models, audio synthesis, or voice systems.
  • Experience with memory and retrieval systems or agentic AI architectures.
  • Proficiency in Python, including typed scientific Python.
  • Familiarity with AI-assisted or agentic development tooling.
Compensation & Benefits
  • Salary: $175,000 - $225,000 per year
  • Equity as a founding team member
  • Visa sponsorship available
Location
This role is fully on-site in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be willing and able to work in-person full-time. Remote work is not available for this position.

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