D
Founding Engineer
Accepting applicationsDifferential. · New York, United States
Full-Time Mid_senior AIJavaaiate
Posted
2d ago
Category
Test
Experience
Mid_senior
Country
United States
Founding Engineer - Early-Stage AI Workflow Startup
New York City | Onsite | $170k–$220k + meaningful equity
I’m working with an early-stage AI company in New York that is building automation technology for a large, underserved operational market.
The business is solving a real-world coordination problem where teams still rely heavily on phone calls, fragmented systems, manual admin and outdated workflows. Their product uses AI agents to automate complex scheduling, communication and verification workflows across multiple systems of record.
This is a Founding Engineer role, joining a very small engineering team at a point where there is still significant scope to shape the product, architecture and engineering culture.
What you’ll be doing
You’ll own ambiguous, high-impact projects end-to-end, including:
Building core product infrastructure and integrations with third-party systems
Developing AI-powered workflow automation across communication-heavy operational processes
Designing systems that handle context, memory, scheduling logic and compliance-sensitive actions
Working across full-stack product development, backend systems and LLM-powered workflow
The ideal person is a backend-leaning full-stack engineer who enjoys early-stage ownership and can operate without much hand-holding.
You’ll likely have:
4–8 years’ full stack software engineering experience
Experience with modern JavaScript/TypeScript frontend frameworks
Backend experience with Node
Strong database experience, ideally PostgreSQL or similar relational systems
Experience owning products or systems from 0→1
Prior startup or founding engineer experience would be very relevant, especially if you’ve built products for complex professional or operational users.
Why this could be interesting
This is not a generic AI wrapper or a narrow feature role. The team is building software that sits inside messy, real-world operational workflows where reliability, context and judgment matter.
It’s a strong fit for someone who wants:
Early engineering ownership
A product with real customer pull
A technical problem that spans product, infrastructure, integrations and AI
A small, high-trust team
Meaningful equity upside
Direct exposure to customers and product direction
Package
Base salary: $170k–$220k
Equity: meaningful early-stage equity
Strong healthcare benefits
Small, founder-led team
Visa sponsorship available for relevant candidates
Location
This is an onsite role in New York City. The team is building in person and looking for someone excited by the pace and ownership of an early-stage environment.
If you’re a product-minded full-stack engineer who enjoys building from zero, solving messy operational problems and working with AI-enabled workflows, this could be a very strong fit.
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New York City | Onsite | $170k–$220k + meaningful equity
I’m working with an early-stage AI company in New York that is building automation technology for a large, underserved operational market.
The business is solving a real-world coordination problem where teams still rely heavily on phone calls, fragmented systems, manual admin and outdated workflows. Their product uses AI agents to automate complex scheduling, communication and verification workflows across multiple systems of record.
This is a Founding Engineer role, joining a very small engineering team at a point where there is still significant scope to shape the product, architecture and engineering culture.
What you’ll be doing
You’ll own ambiguous, high-impact projects end-to-end, including:
Building core product infrastructure and integrations with third-party systems
Developing AI-powered workflow automation across communication-heavy operational processes
Designing systems that handle context, memory, scheduling logic and compliance-sensitive actions
Working across full-stack product development, backend systems and LLM-powered workflow
The ideal person is a backend-leaning full-stack engineer who enjoys early-stage ownership and can operate without much hand-holding.
You’ll likely have:
4–8 years’ full stack software engineering experience
Experience with modern JavaScript/TypeScript frontend frameworks
Backend experience with Node
Strong database experience, ideally PostgreSQL or similar relational systems
Experience owning products or systems from 0→1
Prior startup or founding engineer experience would be very relevant, especially if you’ve built products for complex professional or operational users.
Why this could be interesting
This is not a generic AI wrapper or a narrow feature role. The team is building software that sits inside messy, real-world operational workflows where reliability, context and judgment matter.
It’s a strong fit for someone who wants:
Early engineering ownership
A product with real customer pull
A technical problem that spans product, infrastructure, integrations and AI
A small, high-trust team
Meaningful equity upside
Direct exposure to customers and product direction
Package
Base salary: $170k–$220k
Equity: meaningful early-stage equity
Strong healthcare benefits
Small, founder-led team
Visa sponsorship available for relevant candidates
Location
This is an onsite role in New York City. The team is building in person and looking for someone excited by the pace and ownership of an early-stage environment.
If you’re a product-minded full-stack engineer who enjoys building from zero, solving messy operational problems and working with AI-enabled workflows, this could be a very strong fit.
Show more Show less