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Senior Founding Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Gitwit

Mechro Founding Applied AI Engineer

Tulsa, OK · On-site

$165K - $190K/yr

Mechro Founding Applied AI Engineer Department: Mechro Employment Type: Full Time Location: Tulsa ... Tribal knowledge disappearing as senior techs retire * Field intelligence scattered across ...

Casa, Inc

Senior Backend Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

About the role We're hiring a founding Senior Backend Engineer to help us design, develop, and ship robust backend systems that deliver exceptional value to our members. You'll work closely with our ...

Mechro

Mechro Founding Applied AI Engineer

Tulsa, OK

$165K - $190K/yr

Tribal knowledge disappearing as senior techs retire * Field intelligence scattered across ... Your Impact as the Founding Applied AI Engineer This is a delivery-first engineering role that will ...

Idler

Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$100K - $150K/yr

You'll work alongside senior engineers and the founding team, learning how to design systems that are both technically sound and philosophically robust. A big part of our work is thinking critically ...

idler

Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$100K - $150K/yr

You'll work alongside senior engineers and the founding team, learning how to design systems that are both technically sound and philosophically robust. A big part of our work is thinking critically ...

Nooks

Senior Software Engineer

Seattle, WA · On-site

$215K - $300K/yr

As a Senior Software Engineer, you'll build those agents and iterate with customers until they see ... Around 40 engineers, mostly former founders or founding engineers and veteran builders from places ...

Essen Medical Associates

Senior Software Engineer

Bronx, NY

$127K - $168K/yr

Senior Software Engineer The role: We're hiring Software Engineers to join our founding engineering team. You'll take well-scoped technical work from our principal engineers and ship it, end to end ...

3Y

Senior Software Engineer, Frontend

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$175K - $205K/yr

Ideal candidates may have experience as a founding engineer or founder and bring a bias toward ownership, speed, and continuous iteration. This role requires a dynamic individual who can drive ...

Ventuals

Founding Engineer - Full Stack

New York, NY · On-site +1

$200K - $300K/yr

About the role We're looking for a senior or staff-level engineer to join Ventuals ahead of our mainnet launch . You'll be shaping the user experience, trading systems, and infrastructure that our ...

Essen Medical Associates

Senior Software Engineer

Bronx, NY · On-site

$150K - $180K/yr

Senior Software Engineer The role: We're hiring Software Engineers to join our founding engineering team. You'll take well-scoped technical work from our principal engineers and ship it, end to end ...

Essen Medical Associates

Senior Software Engineer

Bronx, NY · On-site

$150K - $180K/yr

Senior Software Engineer The role: We're hiring Software Engineers to join our founding engineering team. You'll take well-scoped technical work from our principal engineers and ship it, end to end ...

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Senior Founding Engineer information

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$59.5K

$126.6K

$183.5K

How much do senior founding engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 14, 2026, the average yearly pay for senior founding engineer in the United States is $126,557.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $104,500.00 and $143,500.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

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

AspectSenior Founding EngineerLead Software Engineer
CredentialsTypically requires a bachelor's or master's in computer science or related field, with extensive experienceSimilar educational background, often with several years of software development experience
Work EnvironmentEarly-stage startups or new company divisions, often wearing multiple hatsEstablished teams within companies, focusing on project leadership and technical guidance
Industry UsageCommon in startups, tech companies, and entrepreneurial venturesWidely used across tech firms, especially in mid to large-sized organizations
Search & Comparison IntentUnderstanding roles in startup environments, founding responsibilitiesClarifying leadership roles in software development teams

The main difference is that a Senior Founding Engineer is typically an early team member in a startup, often involved in building the product from the ground up, while a Lead Software Engineer usually operates within established organizations, leading project teams and overseeing technical execution.

What are Senior Founding Engineers?

Senior Founding Engineers are experienced technical professionals who join a startup at its earliest stages, often as part of the founding team. They are responsible for designing and building the initial product architecture, making critical technical decisions, and setting engineering best practices. In addition to hands-on coding, they often help shape the company's culture, contribute to hiring, and may participate in strategic business decisions. Their work significantly impacts the company's trajectory and future growth.

How does a Senior Founding Engineer typically balance hands-on technical work with strategic decision-making in an early-stage startup?

As a Senior Founding Engineer, you’ll often juggle direct coding responsibilities with broader technical leadership tasks, such as setting architectural direction and influencing early product decisions. In a small, agile team, you’ll collaborate closely with other founders, designers, and sometimes initial customers to iterate rapidly on features while ensuring scalability and maintainability. The role demands adaptability—shifting between solving immediate technical problems and long-term planning to support growth. This dual focus is both a challenge and an opportunity for career development, as it provides visibility into all aspects of building a product and company from the ground up.

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

To thrive as a Senior Founding Engineer, you need deep expertise in software engineering, product development, and startup environments, usually demonstrated by a strong technical background and experience launching products from scratch. Familiarity with modern programming languages, cloud platforms, version control (e.g., Git), and agile development tools is essential, and experience with system architecture or DevOps is highly valued. Leadership, adaptability, and excellent problem-solving skills set standout candidates apart, as does the ability to communicate complex ideas to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. These skills are crucial for driving technical innovation, building scalable products, and shaping the culture and success of an early-stage startup.
More about Senior Founding Engineer jobs
What cities are hiring for Senior Founding Engineer jobs? Cities with the most Senior Founding Engineer job openings:
What are the most commonly searched types of Founding Engineer jobs? The most popular types of Founding Engineer jobs are:
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Senior Founding Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Senior Founding Engineer job openings in the United States as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 95% Full Time, 2% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 87% Physical, 4% Hybrid, and 9% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $126,557 per year, or $60.8 per hour.
Mechro Founding Applied AI Engineer

Mechro Founding Applied AI Engineer

Gitwit

Tulsa, OK • On-site

$165K - $190K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement, PTO

Re-posted 26 days ago

Job description

Mechro Founding Applied AI Engineer
Department: Mechro
Employment Type: Full Time
Location: Tulsa, OK
Compensation: $165,000 - $190,000 / year
Description
Build the AI Troubleshooting Engine That Powers the Future of Heavy Machinery.
We're not hiring just another engineer. We're hiring the founding, forward-deployed engineer who will bring Mechro's AI troubleshooting platform to life by owning customer outcomes end-to-end, from first discovery workshop to production rollout. You'll work directly with machinery manufacturers (and their distributors/service teams) to turn messy, real-world troubleshooting into a continuously improving AI system. The technical partner who owns the zero-to-one build, shapes the product with real customers, and helps define the intelligence layer for the entire heavy-equipment ecosystem.
Mechro is a new AI-native venture built inside Gitwit's venture studio, designed in partnership with leading machinery manufacturers. Our mission is bold and simple: Turn frontline troubleshooting into a continuous learning system that makes machines smarter, support teams faster, and field operators more confident.
This role is for the engineer who wants to build something that actually gets used on job sites, in service bays, and in the hands of technicians diagnosing real machines every day.
Every machine manufacturer is dealing with the same pain:
  • Support lines overwhelmed with repetitive questions
  • Tribal knowledge disappearing as senior techs retire
  • Field intelligence scattered across notebooks, calls, and emails
  • Manuals that can't keep up with the real world

Mechro changes that.
We're building an AI troubleshooting assistant that becomes the first line of diagnosis for distributors, support techs, and field operators. Not a chatbot bolted onto a PDF, but a full-stack system that ingests manuals, logs, historical service data, field notes, and escalations to create a living, continually improving knowledge base.
Every interaction makes the next one better.
Every fix makes the manufacturer smarter.
This is the future of support for heavy machinery, and you'll be the one building it.
Your Impact as the Founding Applied AI Engineer
This is a delivery-first engineering role that will position you as the technical cornerstone of Mechro. You'll be embedded with customers to understand workflows, define success, integrate their systems/data, and ship working solutions into production. Then you'll bring what you learn back into the core platform so each deployment makes the product stronger and more repeatable.
This role is perfect for someone who
  • Thrives in zero-to-one environments
  • Ships fast and cares deeply about product usefulness
  • Wants to build with real users and see immediate impact
  • Enjoys owning AI systems end-to-end
  • Likes wearing multiple hats and setting the tone for future engineers
  • 50-70% forward-deployed delivery
    • Discovery, integration, implementation, go-live, iteration
  • 30-50% platform/product engineering
    • Core architecture, reliability, AI evaluation + monitoring

Your time focus will flex with customer onboarding cycles.
Areas of responsibility
  • You'll own the architecture, help drive decisions about what gets built and why.
  • Lead full-stack development using React + TypeScript, Node/NestJS, and Postgres/MongoDB
  • Build the AI layer LLM integrations, retrieval, embeddings, evaluation loops
  • Stabilize and scale the MVP into a production-ready troubleshooting assistant
  • Run technical customer integrations, including scoping, implementation calls, and on-site visits
  • Implement reliability systems monitoring, alerting, runbooks, incident response
  • Establish early engineering culture, onboarding docs, architecture patterns, and delivery cadence
  • Translate user problems into product decisions that shape the roadmap

Hybrid, in Tulsa. Due to the nature of this role, working in person with your team and your customers is critical to success.
~75% in-office. Relocation supported.
~25% travel to customer sites. Concentrated around discovery sprints and releases.
What You Bring
  • 5+ years full-stack engineering experience with shipped, user-facing products
  • Strong experience with React + TypeScript, Node/NestJS, and SQL/NoSQL databases
  • Practical experience integrating LLMs/AI APIs into real applications
  • Zero-to-one ownership stories that show grit, ambiguity navigation, and user impact
  • Experience running B2B/enterprise customer integrations
  • Comfort balancing speed with reliability in early-stage systems
  • Excellent written and verbal communication
  • Strong "delivery energy". You like owning outcomes in the real world, not just writing elegant code.
  • Experience with RAG systems, vector databases, or ML evaluation pipelines
  • Familiarity with SOC2-style security practices
  • Prior startup or founding engineer experience
  • Strong product sense and the ability to simplify complex workflows

Compensation & Benefits
  • Base Salary: $165,000-$190,000
  • Founder-level equity
  • Relocation support
  • Excellent health, vision, and dental
  • 401(k) with match
  • Generous PTO
  • Cell reimbursement, parking stipend
  • Weekly team lunches
  • Dog-friendly office
  • Flexible, high-autonomy culture

Machine manufacturers who move first will own the intelligence layer of their industry. The knowledge base you build, the one that captures decades of field wisdom, becomes their moat.
This is a chance to:
  • Build a category-defining AI product
  • Shape engineering direction from day one
  • Work directly with field techs, operators, and engineering teams
  • Turn real-world troubleshooting into data that transforms how machines are serviced
  • Help Mechro become the standard for AI-powered support across an entire sector

You won't just contribute to value. You'll create it.
No cover letter. Just better questions.
Please apply with:
  1. A short pitch (2-3 sentences about yourself)
  2. Answers to these prompts:
    • What's the last technology or tool you learned that fundamentally changed how you build software?
    • Describe the last feature or product you shipped that reached real users. Why did it matter?

We read every application carefully. Concrete examples > buzzwords.
If you want to build something users will touch every day, something that powers real machines in the real world, we'd love to talk.

Apply