{"id":1271677,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cua-founding-engineer-infra-agent-systems","title":"Founding Engineer, Infra & Agent Systems","company":{"id":2249709,"name":"Cua","domain":"cua.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/cua-ai","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Work at a Startup","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"junior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":100000,"max":150000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":150000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":1,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"Copilot","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"GDPR","optional":false},{"name":"GitHub","optional":false},{"name":"Go","optional":false},{"name":"KVM","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":false},{"name":"Windows","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-26T00:21:10Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-26","last_verified_at":"2026-09-29T02:58:00Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":3,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":3},"description":"Overview\nCua is building the infrastructure that enables general-purpose AI agents to safely and scalably use real computers and applications.\nWe're a small team backed by Y Combinator and top-tier investors, and our open-source tools are already used by thousands of developers. As a Founding Engineer, you’ll help turn research prototypes into production-ready infrastructure - powering everything from secure agent runtimes to cross-cloud container orchestration.\nWe’re looking for someone who brings deep technical ability, strong product instincts, and an eagerness to operate across layers - from OS-level virtualization to developer-facing APIs. You’ll work closely with the founding team on infrastructure design, developer tools, and open-source community building.\nYour contributions will shape how autonomous agents interact with real computers at scale - across macOS, Windows and Linux - and how developers deploy and trust them in production environments.\nCua is for builders who care about reproducibility, system safety, and the developer experience of working with AI. If that sounds like you, we’d love to talk.\nResponsibilities\nDesign and scale infrastructure to run real AI agents on isolated macOS and Linux containers\nBuild orchestration systems across cloud providers (AWS, GCP, etc.) for deploying ephemeral agent environments\nCreate intuitive APIs and CLIs for developers to launch and control agents\nContribute to the design of secure, reproducible agent runtimes using Docker, KVM, or similar technologies\nWork closely with early customers, open-source contributors, and the founding team to define roadmap and architecture\nPublish engineering updates, blog posts, and technical documentation to grow the ecosystem\nParticipate in product discussions, contribute to internal research, and help drive long-term technical vision\nQualifications\nRequired:\n2+ years building and maintaining production infrastructure systems\nProficiency in one or more of: Python, Go, TypeScript, or Rust\nExperience with backend system design, containers, and cloud environments\nStrong interest in developer tools, AI infrastructure, or distributed systems\nComfortable operating in a fast-moving, ambiguous, startup environment\nPreferred:\nExperience with Docker, KVM, or other OS-level virtualization\nFamiliarity with multi-cloud deployment and networking (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure)\nPerformance optimization and debugging experience (e.g., PostgreSQL tuning, cluster orchestration)\nExperience working with AI agents, LLM-generated code, or Copilot-style tools\nPrior open-source contributions or community involvement\nBased in or willing to relocate to SF\nWhat We Offer\nEarly-stage ownership - Join as a founding engineer with equity and high influence\n\nReal traction - 9k+ GitHub stars and growing community of developers\n\nTechnical scope - From system internals to developer UX to open-source leadership\n\nImpact - Define how general AI agents run safely and scalably in production\n\nHow to Apply\nPlease include:\nYour GitHub or portfolio (required)\nA short note on the most interesting developer or infrastructure problem you’ve helped solve\nBonus: try building something with Cua or contribute to our docs - we notice contributors\nThe base salary range for this role in San Francisco is $100,000-$150,000 USD per year, depending on experience and skill level. This role also includes equity and other benefits.\nCua AI, Inc. is committed to fair and transparent compensation. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply, regardless of gender, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or belief.\nPersonal data will be handled in accordance with the GDPR (EU Regulation 2016/679) and other applicable data privacy laws.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3739,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":1,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Artificial Intelligence","Events & Ticketing","AI Agents"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-26T00:21:10Z"}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":2,"expected_fill_days":15,"reasons":["conf:3","win:early","comp:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-09-28T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":150000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cua-founding-engineer-infra-agent-systems","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cua-founding-engineer-infra-agent-systems.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-29T04:23:39Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":4145,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":855,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z"}}}