Founding Engineer (AI/ML)
About the Role
This is a founding-team engineering role at an early-stage AI recruiting marketplace, where you will own the intelligence layer end to end. Recommendation systems, ranking algorithms, and LLM-powered matching are the core of how the product works, and this role is responsible for building and evolving all of it. The impact is immediate and highly visible across the entire product.
What You'll Do
Own the AI/ML intelligence layer end to end, covering recommendation, ranking, and retrieval.
Build and iterate on LLM-powered matching that measurably improves candidate-to-role alignment.
Take features from problem definition to production independently, shipping on a daily cadence.
Architect and maintain the production data pipelines and services that models run on.
Work directly with the founding team to translate product goals into shipped systems.
What We're Looking For
2 to 5 years of production software engineering experience, with genuine applied ML depth.
Hands-on experience building recommender systems, ranking algorithms, or ML-powered matching in production. This is the most important requirement.
Production experience with LLM APIs and shipping LLM-powered features to real users.
Strong proficiency in TypeScript or Python; either language is sufficient on its own.
Experience with production ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, or equivalent.
Experience building and maintaining production data pipelines and services.
Comfortable in fast-paced, unstructured startup environments with rapid iteration cycles.
Existing U.S. work authorization, or eligibility for the sponsorship route currently available.
Strong CS fundamentals and a track record that demonstrates exceptional technical achievement, such as notable open-source contributions or standout personal projects.
Nice to have: React, Supabase, Prisma, Typesense, vector search and embeddings, or workflow automation tooling in production.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary: $130,000 to $170,000 annually, plus competitive founding-hire equity. Visa sponsorship is available for eligible candidates.
Location
On-site in San Francisco, CA, 6 days per week. This is an in-person role at a shared hacker house setup. Relocation assistance is available for candidates based outside the Bay Area.