AI & Automations Engineer Remote Part-time

Compensation

Annual salary + Performance-based + Bonus

We’re building what you might call the Bloomberg Terminal for Startups or the App Store for AI Work — a platform that doesn’t just advise, but automates the discovery, qualification, drafting, and submission of grants, tax credits (like SR&ED), subsidies, all with minimal overhead and maximal impact.

Upgraded helps high-growth tech startups unlock an average of ~$104k/year in savings, close to without lifting a finger. That's possible because our AI and automation uncover funding opportunities missed by human teams. Our promise? If we don’t deliver results, clients don’t pay.

As an AI & Automations Engineer, you will build the plumbing, the “agent-layer”, and the real time systems that make our vision possible. You’ll:

• Design & build pipelines that ingest client data (financials, engineering logs, time sheets, product roadmaps, etc.), validate eligibility for funding programs, map to relevant criteria (e.g. SR&ED technical uncertainties, expenditures, etc.), and prepare draft submissions.
• Develop automation agents / microservices that generate narratives, supporting documents, estimate costs, track documentation, and prepare audit-ready artifacts.
• Integrate with external APIs / SaaS tools (accounting, payroll, project management, etc.) so our system can pull data continuously, flag anomalies, and drive insights.
• Optimize AI / ML models for grant eligibility scoring, narrative drafting, and quality prediction. Help monitor performance, error rates, and feedback loops.
• Ensure compliance & reliability
  : audit trails, versioning, rigorous testing (unit/integration), error handling, data security, privacy.
• Collaborate closely with product, operations, and strategy teams to prioritize automation features that deliver the most leverage (e.g. fastest time to funding, reduction in manual labor, fewer audit rejections).

• Strong software engineering experience, ideally with AI / ML, automation / orchestration, or data pipelines.
• Experience with working on systems that need to produce high-quality text (narratives, reports) as output; bonus if you’ve built or fine-tuned models or prompt pipelines.
• Understanding of SR&ED or similar R&D tax/incentive programs is a big plus (or demonstrated ability to learn fast in regulated environments).
• Strong focus on engineering discipline: testing, monitoring, error handling, security, and versioning.
• Autonomy + collaborative spirit. You own features end-to-end, but you also align closely with product and strategy.
• Clear communicator. Able to explain technical tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders.

• You’ll build tools that directly enable innovation funding for dozens or hundreds of startups, helping them avoid dilution and scale faster.
• You’ll work in “founder mode” with Will Richman—someone who has shipped, scaled, exited, and is now stacking AI + automation into infrastructure.
• Massive leverage: one good automation you build could save hundreds of hours, prevent audit rejections, or unlock tens-of-thousands in grants per client.
• Opportunity to shape the AI stack (narrative generation, eligibility prediction, automation agents) from early stages—there’s little technical debt, lots of greenfield.

Send us a project or sample: anything you’ve built that involves automation, data pipelines, or generating text (even scripts, dashboards, bots, etc.).

Also, 1-2 paragraphs:
How would you design an automated AI & automations pipeline that goes from raw product dev / engineering work to client ready to use, delivered AI & automations?

If you’re energized by the convergence of AI, automations, the future of work, grant funding, and growth strategy—and want to design the way startups thrive—let’s chat.

Email your resume + sample deliverable to , or apply at  Help build the bridge between AI systems and startup-scale innovation
.