Job description

About the Company Our client is a seed-stage, well-capitalized AI startup in San Francisco building an agentic geospatial intelligence engine: a natural language interface that answers any question about the physical world by orchestrating specialist agents across a unified catalog of public and enterprise geospatial datasets, delivering outputs as maps, visualizations, and reports in seconds to minutes. It is built for a future where agents and bots ask most of the questions. About the Role The company is hiring its first Founding Engineers to build the core of a deeply horizontal system spanning data ingestion, spatial computation, agent orchestration, and product surfaces. The system is big and there is a lot to build: each engineer is expected to own outcomes end-to-end, operate with high agency, and function like a mini-founder within the org. This is an in-person role in San Francisco, working directly alongside the founder. What You'll Own • Own modules of the geospatial intelligence platform end-to-end, from architecture decisions through production deployment, without waiting for a playbook • Build and iterate on core system components: data ingestion pipelines, spatial computation layers, agent orchestration logic, and output delivery surfaces • Ship production code at high velocity, balancing technical depth with product intuition and customer outcomes • Identify and close gaps in the system independently, proposing and executing on what needs to be built next • Collaborate directly with the founder to shape early technical and product direction as the team scales from its first hires Requirements Must-Have • 3+ years of engineering experience at real companies, with a track record of building and shipping production systems at high velocity • Full-stack generalist ability: comfortable owning both backend systems and frontend surfaces, and moving between layers as the scope demands • High agency and outcome orientation: operates without a defined scope or playbook, identifies what needs to be built, and executes end-to-end • Fluency with the current AI and software stack: native to modern tooling and not dependent on legacy patterns • Willingness to work in-person at the San Francisco office at startup intensity, with demanding hours consistent with an early-stage founding team Nice-to-Have • GIS or geospatial engineering background: experience with spatial data formats, GIS tooling, or location-based systems • Applied AI research background: a paper, project, or production system that goes beyond standard ML pipeline work • Experience at a high-velocity startup (such as Mercor, Databricks, Cognition, or similar) where you built real systems under pressure • Competitive programming signal: IOI, ICPC, or equivalent • Prior founding or early-employee experience at a startup where you operated without structure Key Details • Location: San Francisco, CA (in-person) • Employment: Full-time • Experience: 3+ years • Salary: $150,000 – $350,000 USD per year, plus founding-stage equity • Visa Sponsorship: OPT only Benefits & Perks • Competitive founding-stage equity • In-office meals included Interview Process • Intro call with the founder • Take-home project • Technical debrief call • Call with a co-founder or advisor • Work trial (for candidates between roles) • Offer

Requirements

Must-haves

What You'll Own
Own modules of the geospatial intelligence platform end-to-end, from architecture decisions through production deployment, without waiting for a playbook
Build and iterate on core system components: data ingestion pipelines, spatial computation layers, agent orchestration logic, and output delivery surfaces
Ship production code at high velocity, balancing technical depth with product intuition and customer outcomes
Identify and close gaps in the system independently, proposing and executing on what needs to be built next
Collaborate directly with the founder to shape early technical and product direction as the team scales from its first hires
3+ years of engineering experience at real companies, with a track record of building and shipping production systems at high velocity
Full-stack generalist ability: comfortable owning both backend systems and frontend surfaces, and moving between layers as the scope demands
High agency and outcome orientation: operates without a defined scope or playbook, identifies what needs to be built, and executes end-to-end
Fluency with the current AI and software stack: native to modern tooling and not dependent on legacy patterns
Willingness to work in-person at the San Francisco office at startup intensity, with demanding hours consistent with an early-stage founding team
Experience: 3+ years

Nice-to-haves

GIS or geospatial engineering background: experience with spatial data formats, GIS tooling, or location-based systems
Applied AI research background: a paper, project, or production system that goes beyond standard ML pipeline work
Experience at a high-velocity startup (such as Mercor, Databricks, Cognition, or similar) where you built real systems under pressure
Competitive programming signal: IOI, ICPC, or equivalent
Prior founding or early-employee experience at a startup where you operated without structure
Location: San Francisco, CA (in-person)
Employment: Full-time
Salary: $150,000 – $350,000 USD per year, plus founding-stage equity
Visa Sponsorship: OPT only

Application prep

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Keywords to mirror

aiml

Platform: manatal
Effort: medium