VU
Founding Engineer
Accepting applicationsVenture Up · San Francisco Bay Area
Full-Time Mid_senior AIaiatespi
Posted
28 May
Category
Manufacturing
Experience
Mid_senior
Country
United States
Founding Engineer — build the platform that lets enterprises actually deploy AI agents
Are you a product-minded engineer who ships fast and owns outcomes end-to-end? Have you been the person who takes something from concept to launch without waiting for a spec? Do you want to be one of the first engineers at a company that's already found real traction in the hottest corner of AI?
A seed-stage AI startup backed by a top-tier fund (think the investors behind some of the most ambitious hard-tech and infrastructure companies of the last decade) is hiring founding engineers to build the agent workforce — the platform that gives enterprises the permissions, guardrails, and activity logging they need to put AI agents into production safely. Early customers are already automating hours of real work every day.
They've raised a strong seed round, they're a tight team of fewer than 10, and they're scaling fast off the back of genuine early adoption. This is a ground-floor seat with real ownership.
What you'll do
▸ Own the application layer end-to-end: permissions, guardrails, observability, the control plane, and the user-facing dashboards that make agents trustworthy enough to ship.
▸ Design and build scalable APIs, backend systems, and developer tooling that hold up as usage grows.
▸ Lead architecture and product decisions, working directly with early enterprise customers to shape what gets built next.
▸ Own features from concept through design, implementation, and launch. No layers between you and the product.
▸ Help scale the agent infrastructure to keep up with rapid user growth.
The founder
This is led by a second-time founder with a real track record — they previously built a developer platform company and scaled it to several hundred people, so they know how to take enterprise software from zero to serious scale. You'll be working directly with them and a small, high-velocity founding team. The kind of room where what you build actually defines the company.
The role is in-office in San Francisco. They want builders who want to be in the room while the foundations get laid — high ownership, fast iteration, hands-on every day.
What they're looking for
✓ 3-7 years of full-stack software engineering, with strong production intuition and experience owning features end-to-end
✓ A clear "spike" — you've worked at a recognised product-led tech company (think Notion, Ramp, PostHog, Granola, Linear tier), and/or founded a startup (ideally through a top accelerator like YC), and/or have a top-tier academic pedigree. They're genuinely looking for the top few percent.
✓ You've built real products from concept to launch, not just maintained someone else's
✓ Experience with AI/ML systems or agentic workflows — you understand how agents actually work, not just how to call an API
✓ Comfortable across backend systems, scalable APIs, and cloud deployment (AWS, Docker, Kubernetes)
✓ Strong product instinct — you care about what gets built and why, not just how
What they offer
💰 $175K–$375K + meaningful equity (with flexibility on the cash/equity split)
A true founding-engineer stake in a company with real customers and real momentum
A second-time founder who's done it before and knows how to scale enterprise software
Direct ownership of entire product areas from day one — no management layers between you and impact
90th-percentile startup compensation
Visa: sponsorship available for TN visas and H-1B transfers (other cases considered individually)
A ground-floor seat in the agent-platform category right as it's taking off
Show more Show less
Are you a product-minded engineer who ships fast and owns outcomes end-to-end? Have you been the person who takes something from concept to launch without waiting for a spec? Do you want to be one of the first engineers at a company that's already found real traction in the hottest corner of AI?
A seed-stage AI startup backed by a top-tier fund (think the investors behind some of the most ambitious hard-tech and infrastructure companies of the last decade) is hiring founding engineers to build the agent workforce — the platform that gives enterprises the permissions, guardrails, and activity logging they need to put AI agents into production safely. Early customers are already automating hours of real work every day.
They've raised a strong seed round, they're a tight team of fewer than 10, and they're scaling fast off the back of genuine early adoption. This is a ground-floor seat with real ownership.
What you'll do
▸ Own the application layer end-to-end: permissions, guardrails, observability, the control plane, and the user-facing dashboards that make agents trustworthy enough to ship.
▸ Design and build scalable APIs, backend systems, and developer tooling that hold up as usage grows.
▸ Lead architecture and product decisions, working directly with early enterprise customers to shape what gets built next.
▸ Own features from concept through design, implementation, and launch. No layers between you and the product.
▸ Help scale the agent infrastructure to keep up with rapid user growth.
The founder
This is led by a second-time founder with a real track record — they previously built a developer platform company and scaled it to several hundred people, so they know how to take enterprise software from zero to serious scale. You'll be working directly with them and a small, high-velocity founding team. The kind of room where what you build actually defines the company.
The role is in-office in San Francisco. They want builders who want to be in the room while the foundations get laid — high ownership, fast iteration, hands-on every day.
What they're looking for
✓ 3-7 years of full-stack software engineering, with strong production intuition and experience owning features end-to-end
✓ A clear "spike" — you've worked at a recognised product-led tech company (think Notion, Ramp, PostHog, Granola, Linear tier), and/or founded a startup (ideally through a top accelerator like YC), and/or have a top-tier academic pedigree. They're genuinely looking for the top few percent.
✓ You've built real products from concept to launch, not just maintained someone else's
✓ Experience with AI/ML systems or agentic workflows — you understand how agents actually work, not just how to call an API
✓ Comfortable across backend systems, scalable APIs, and cloud deployment (AWS, Docker, Kubernetes)
✓ Strong product instinct — you care about what gets built and why, not just how
What they offer
💰 $175K–$375K + meaningful equity (with flexibility on the cash/equity split)
A true founding-engineer stake in a company with real customers and real momentum
A second-time founder who's done it before and knows how to scale enterprise software
Direct ownership of entire product areas from day one — no management layers between you and impact
90th-percentile startup compensation
Visa: sponsorship available for TN visas and H-1B transfers (other cases considered individually)
A ground-floor seat in the agent-platform category right as it's taking off
Show more Show less