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Job opportunity
Founding Engineer
San Francisco, California, United States
Source: Clera careers · View original posting
- Pay
- $150,000 — $220,000 USD per year
- Sponsorship
- Note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this role
Employer job description
From Clera's posting. “We” and “our” refer to the employer.
About the Role
A seed-stage AI data infrastructure startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer with 1+ years of professional experience shipping to production. This is a foundational hire at an early-stage company building a people-data and agent platform — you'll have real ownership, work directly with leadership, and help shape the technical direction of the product as it scales toward Series A. Ideal for a high-agency, first-principles thinker who thrives in ambiguity and has founder aspirations.
What You'll Do
- Design, build, and operate core infrastructure powering a people-data and AI agent platform, including APIs, LLM-powered workflows, scraping systems, and large-scale knowledge graph architecture.
- Architect and maintain production-grade systems capable of handling millions of API requests, with a strong focus on performance, cost efficiency, and reliability across cloud and Linux server environments.
- Own projects end-to-end — from ambiguous problem definition through deployment and iteration — shipping quickly without sacrificing system integrity.
- Collaborate directly with the CEO and CTO on technical decisions, roadmap priorities, and foundational architectural choices that will define the company's long-term direction.
- Contribute broadly across the stack, including developer documentation, technical tutorials, internal tooling, and experimental builds that showcase and stress-test platform APIs.
What We're Looking For
- Required: 1+ years of professional experience shipping software to production.
- Hands-on experience with APIs, distributed systems, microservices, and data pipelines.
- Comfort working with LLMs, AI agents, and knowledge graph or identity resolution systems is a strong plus.
- Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP) and Linux server environments.
- Strong instincts for performance, reliability, and cost-efficient system design.
- High agency — you move fast, take ownership, and operate well with limited direction.
- First-principles thinker who is energized by building 0-to-1 in a fast-moving environment.
Compensation
Compensation & Benefits
Salary:
- $150,000 – $220,000 USD annually
- Early-stage equity as a founding team member
- Note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this role
Location
This is an on-site role based in San Francisco, CA
. Candidates must be available to work in-person.
About this listing
LAYIQ is an independent job-discovery service. This listing does not imply a partnership with or endorsement by the employer. Review the original posting for current details and availability.
Employer posted:
Listing check
- Employer posted
- · 140 days ago
- Status
- Listed as a current opening
- Apply goes to
- Ashby, the employer's hiring system
Posted over three months ago. Hiring can take months, so age alone is not a warning. If you are unsure, check the employer's careers page.
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