Founding Engineer
About the Role
Join an early-stage AI infrastructure startup as its first engineering hire. You will work directly with the founder to evolve a working AI agent product into reliable infrastructure that can scale, with the opportunity to grow into CTO-level ownership as the team develops.
What You'll Do
Turn the existing product into scalable agentic infrastructure designed to support substantial user growth.
Design and operate the agent runtime, including orchestration, memory, verification, and multi-agent workflows.
Build across backend, infrastructure, frontend, and agent systems, taking work from design through production.
Set technical architecture, engineering standards, and development practices as the first engineering hire.
Ship improvements frequently to customers using the product in service businesses.
What We're Looking For
At least 2 years of production software experience, or an equivalent record of building and shipping real systems as a founder, solo builder, or early technical lead.
Experience building and operating LLM or AI agent systems in production, with real users relying on them.
Full-stack range across backend, infrastructure, and user-facing software, with the ability to make technical decisions independently.
Experience scaling a working prototype through architecture, data models, runtime design, and orchestration.
A track record of shipping frequently and explaining the technical challenges in systems you have built.
Founder experience or early-stage startup experience is valuable, as is familiarity with recruiting, agencies, or other service-delivery businesses.
Based in Europe and willing to relocate to San Francisco within the first year. Sustained experience in prior roles is preferred.
Compensation & Benefits
Annual salary of EUR 80,000 to EUR 140,000. US visa sponsorship and relocation support are available.
Location
Remote within Europe initially, with relocation to San Francisco expected within the first year.
