Forward Deployed Engineer
About the Role
This is a founding engineer position at an early-stage AI infrastructure startup building an agentic integration platform. You will own core systems end-to-end alongside the founding team, setting the engineering patterns that every future hire builds on. The work is hands-on, high-stakes, and directly shapes the product from day one.
What You'll Do
Own the agent platform, infrastructure, and integrations runtime end-to-end.
Set engineering patterns and standards that the entire future engineering org will build on.
Ship to production constantly, working directly with the founding team.
Help shape the full system architecture across agent orchestration, durable execution, self-healing systems, and a growing integration knowledge base.
What We're Looking For
2 to 9 years of professional software engineering experience; staff, principal, lead, or manager titles at large companies are not the right fit for this hands-on IC role.
A completed or in-progress engineering, computer science, or quantitative degree from a strong technical university.
Prior experience as a founder of a funded startup or as an early engineer at a well-backed seed or Series A startup; a career spent exclusively at large tech companies, enterprise, or consulting does not meet the bar.
Proven track record of shipping and owning real production systems end-to-end, multiple times.
Proficiency across the stack: TypeScript, React, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, and AWS; experience with Bun or Effect-TS is a plus.
Comfortable working with and directing multiple AI coding agents while exercising strong judgment over production quality.
Broad end-to-end engineering ability spanning agent platforms, infrastructure, and integration runtimes.
Genuine motivation for a fast-paced, high-intensity, in-person early-stage environment.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary range: $150,000 to $250,000 USD annually.
Visa sponsorship is available where an O-1 visa is a realistic path.
Location
On-site, five days a week in San Francisco, CA. Candidates based elsewhere in the US are welcome with a concrete, dated relocation plan to San Francisco.