Founding Software Engineer

About the Opportunity

• Our client is an early-stage, well-funded startup building the infrastructure that lets AI agents communicate and operate in the real world — think of it as giving autonomous software its own inbox, identity, and the ability to safely send and receive real-world communications at scale. Backed by a group of respected technology investors and operators, the company has seen rapid, sustained growth in both users and revenue since its public launch earlier this year, and is scaling its small, technically elite founding engineering team to keep pace.

What You'll Do

• Core ownership: Design and build the APIs and backend infrastructure that power how AI agents communicate, authenticate, and operate — this is the heart of the product
• End-to-end projects: Own initiatives from scoping requirements through system design to production launch, on efforts like protocol integrations and usage-based pricing systems
• Full-stack when needed: Work across the stack as required (roughly 80% backend, 20% frontend or adjacent), touching distributed systems, databases, and developer tooling
• Bring your own ideas: Proactively identify and pitch growth, product, or infrastructure improvements rather than only executing assigned tickets
• Customer-facing moments: Serve as a frontline resource for customer feedback, occasionally supporting enterprise customers through custom deployments
• Documentation and craft: Write clear, maintainable code and strong technical documentation for infrastructure that processes a very high daily volume of real-time traffic

✅ What You Bring

• Experience level: 0-5 years of full-stack or backend engineering experience; strong new grads with excellent academic performance and internships are welcome to apply
• Company background: Experience at a well-known, VC-backed startup (Series A or later) or a major technology company
• Ownership track record: A history of shipping and owning products or features end-to-end, from concept (0) to live production (1)
• Production experience: Experience building and scaling production systems that handle real user load
• Bonus experience: Exposure to email, messaging, or other protocol-heavy systems is a strong plus
• Education: A degree in computer science or a related technical field is preferred, particularly for candidates earlier in their careers
• Core language: Strong proficiency in TypeScript or another modern backend framework
• Backend fundamentals: Solid grounding in REST API design, system design, and server-side architecture
• Infrastructure exposure: Familiarity with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, or developer tooling; experience applying these to AI/LLM or autonomous-agent use cases is a bonus
• High agency: You proactively surface ideas and drive execution without waiting for scope to be handed to you

🎁 Why Join

• Greenfield ownership: Most projects here start at zero — you scope them, build them, and ship them
• Generalist-friendly: The core product is infrastructure- and API-heavy, but you're encouraged to follow your curiosity into growth, product, or forward-deployed engineering work
• Competitive compensation: $150,000-$200,000 base salary (flexible above this range for exceptional candidates) plus 0.5%-1% equity
• Everyday perks: A daily fitness membership, plus breakfast, lunch, and dinner covered
• Strong team, real momentum: A small, technically strong founding team backed by well-regarded early-stage investors, growing quickly and hiring for multiple openings on this team

📍 Location & Logistics

• On-site role: This position is based on-site in San Francisco, CA, five days a week

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