Founding Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: San Francisco

Employment Type: FullTime

About the Role

This is a rare, high-impact founding engineer opportunity at an early-stage consumer AI startup operating at the frontier of real-time, human-like AI interaction. You'll work directly alongside the founder as one of the first engineers, with enormous influence over product direction, technical architecture, and engineering culture. The company is small, fast-moving, and deeply ambitious — this role is built for someone who thrives in that environment.

The product focuses on making AI conversations feel genuinely human — real-time, emotionally present, and natively integrated into the communication experiences people already use every day.

What You'll Do

• Build across the full application — frontend, backend, and everything in between — in close collaboration with the founder, design, and fellow engineers.

• Design and build systems for memory, retrieval, proactivity, and responsiveness to elevate AI presence and interactivity.

• Integrate and work with the latest real-time video generation and audio synthesis models — both internal and external.

• Set the bar for engineering quality and actively help recruit exceptional talent to grow the team.

• Dogfood the product extensively, because you genuinely care about the user experience.

What We're Looking For

Required:

• 2–7 years of software engineering experience, with at least 1 year of professional experience building production systems.

• Strong computer science fundamentals — data structures, algorithms, system design.

• Degree in Computer Science or equivalent technical background; bachelor's from a top university preferred.

• Track record of building technically complex projects end-to-end (professional, open source, or side projects).

• Full-stack development experience across frontend and backend systems.

• Experience integrating external APIs and third-party services.

• Prior experience in an early-stage startup or similarly fast-moving environment.

• High energy, exceptional intelligence, and entrepreneurial drive.

Bonus / Nice to Have:

• Experience with real-time media systems — video streaming, audio processing, or live communication.

• Experience building or integrating vision or video generation models.

• Experience with memory, caching, or retrieval systems.

• Experience with audio synthesis or audio-focused applications.

• Proficiency in typed scientific Python (e.g. NumPy, PyTorch ecosystems).

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $175,000 – $225,000 USD annually

• Early equity in a high-upside early-stage company

• Visa sponsorship available

Location

This role is fully on-site in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be willing and able to work in person full-time. Remote work is not available for this position.