Job description

FOUNDING ENGINEER (FULL STACK) Location: San Francisco Bay Area Type: Full-Time Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity (founding tier) Backed by 8VC, we're building a world-class team to tackle one of the industry’s most critical infrastructure problems. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re hiring a founding full stack engineer to help architect and build the platform from day one. This is a unique opportunity to a significant portion of the tech stack and grow into a leadership role with considerable upside in equity. You’ll be working on infrastructure that combines large-scale data systems with AI-native agents. This is a highly autonomous, high-leverage role with ownership over core architecture and early team culture. You’ll be writing production code across backend and frontend, defining interfaces between components, shaping devops and data infrastructure, and helping translate abstract concepts into working systems. If you’re someone who prefers fast feedback, direct impact, and long-term upside — this is for you. RESPONSIBILITIES - Architect and build scalable APIs, backend services, and web application components - Contribute across the stack: data pipelines, agents, web UIs, deployment systems - Design and implement internal tooling, testing frameworks, and CI/CD pipelines - Collaborate closely with product and design to prototype and ship features quickly - Help define engineering processes, contribute to documentation, and grow the early team OUR STACK An ability to learn and grasp new technologies quickly trumps knowing the entire tech stack — you should be comfortable learning and adapting in a fast-moving environment. The following represents the types of technologies you will be working with: Languages: TypeScript (Node.js), Python (FastAPI) Frontend: React, Next.js, Tailwind, shadcn/ui Backend: Postgres, DuckDB, GraphQL (Hasura), Kafka, REST Cloud/Infra: AWS, Docker, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Kubernetes (basic) AI/Agents: LangChain, LangGraph, OpenAI, Anthropic, LLaMA, Pinecone, Qdrant Governance: Keycloak, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenTelemetry, Slack integrations Visualization: Vega, Flourish, React ReChart Connectors: ERP, PLM, Excel, Email, Web APIs WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR Experience: - 5+ years as a full stack or backend engineer - Experience owning and delivering production systems end-to-end - Prior experience with modern frontend frameworks (React, Next.js) - Familiarity with building APIs, databases, cloud infrastructure, or deployment workflows at scale - Comfortable working in early-stage startups or autonomous roles, prior experience as a founder, founding engineer, or a 0-1 pre-seed startup is a big plus Mindset: - Comfortable with ambiguity, eager to prototype and iterate quickly - Strong sense of ownership — prefers to build systems rather than wait for tickets - Enjoys thinking about architecture, performance, and tradeoffs at every level - Clear communicator and pragmatic team player - Values equity and impact over prestige or hierarchy - Prior startup or founding team experience Bonus: - Contributions to open-source or internal tools with impact - Interest in data systems, agent workflows, or LLM orchestration Why Join - True ownership — early equity and influence over product and technical direction - Mission-driven team solving complex data and AI problems with real-world impact - Strong engineering culture focused on velocity, clarity, and long-term thinking - Learning curve across AI, data infra, agents, and enterprise-scale platforms - Early access to cutting-edge AI workflows and deployment patterns If you want to build systems that learn, act, and evolve — with the autonomy to shape the stack and the team — we’d love to hear from you.

Requirements

Must-haves

Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Type: Full-Time
Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity (founding tier)
Backed by 8VC, we're building a world-class team to tackle one of the industry’s most critical infrastructure problems.
You’ll be working on infrastructure that combines large-scale data systems with AI-native agents. This is a highly autonomous, high-leverage role with ownership over core architecture and early team culture.
Architect and build scalable APIs, backend services, and web application components
Contribute across the stack: data pipelines, agents, web UIs, deployment systems
Design and implement internal tooling, testing frameworks, and CI/CD pipelines
Collaborate closely with product and design to prototype and ship features quickly
Help define engineering processes, contribute to documentation, and grow the early team
Languages: TypeScript (Node.js), Python (FastAPI)
Frontend: React, Next.js, Tailwind, shadcn/ui
Backend: Postgres, DuckDB, GraphQL (Hasura), Kafka, REST
Cloud/Infra: AWS, Docker, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Kubernetes (basic)
AI/Agents: LangChain, LangGraph, OpenAI, Anthropic, LLaMA, Pinecone, Qdrant
Governance: Keycloak, Open Policy Agent (OPA), OpenTelemetry, Slack integrations

Nice-to-haves

Contributions to open-source or internal tools with impact
Interest in data systems, agent workflows, or LLM orchestration
True ownership — early equity and influence over product and technical direction
Mission-driven team solving complex data and AI problems with real-world impact
Strong engineering culture focused on velocity, clarity, and long-term thinking
Learning curve across AI, data infra, agents, and enterprise-scale platforms
Early access to cutting-edge AI workflows and deployment patterns
If you want to build systems that learn, act, and evolve — with the autonomy to shape the stack and the team — we’d love to hear from you.

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

aici/cdtypescriptnode.jspythonreactnext.jspostgresgraphqlrestawsdockerkubernetesllm

Platform: ashby
Effort: quick