Founding Engineer

About the Role

Join a fast-moving, early-stage consumer AI startup as a Founding Engineer — a rare, high-impact position working directly alongside the founder. This is a true 1-of-1 opportunity to shape both the product and engineering culture from the ground up. The company is building a real-time, AI-enabled platform focused on digitizing human connection, making AI conversations feel genuinely present and responsive. You'll be one of the first engineers in, with enormous scope and ownership.

• Build across the full application stack alongside the founder, design team, and other engineers.
• Design and implement systems for memory, retrieval, proactivity, and AI responsiveness.
• Integrate and develop cutting-edge real-time video generation and audio synthesis models, both internal and third-party.
• Set the bar for engineering quality and help recruit world-class talent as the team grows.
• Extensively use and test the product yourself — because you genuinely care about the user experience.

• Required: Computer Science degree from a top university.
• Required: 2–7 years of professional software engineering experience (not a new grad).
• Required: Strong CS fundamentals and high technical aptitude.
• Required: Demonstrated entrepreneurial spirit — experience in startups or other fast-moving, ambiguous environments.
• Required: Technically complex side projects that showcase initiative and depth.
• Required: High energy, self-driven, and comfortable with early-stage chaos.
• Bonus: Experience with real-time media, vision or video model training/deployment, memory systems, voice/audio-focused projects, or typed scientific Python.

• Python (including typed scientific Python)
• Vision and video models
• Real-time video generation and audio synthesis
• Memory and retrieval systems
• Agentic coding and AI-assisted development tools

• Salary: $175,000 – $225,000 USD annually
• Visa sponsorship available

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