Member of Technical Staff (Founding Engineer, AI Agents)

This is a rare opportunity to be a founding engineer at an early-stage consumer AI startup backed by top VCs and operating out of IDEO. If you want greenfield ownership in building adaptive personal AI agents that help people navigate everyday life, and you thrive in fast-moving, high-ownership environments, read on.

What You Will Do

• Build the agent harness, simulation, and evaluation environments to enable long-horizon agent behavior and learning.
• Design and implement the memory layer and retrieval systems that underpin the agent’s ability to remember, reason, and adapt.
• Develop conversation design systems for a consumer-facing AI product that sits between an assistant and a friend.
• Own core backend and AI infrastructure across multiple product domains, with hands-on responsibility from design to deployment.
• Shape the technical roadmap, company culture, and the founding team alongside the CEO.
  
  

What Is Expected

• You have 5+ years of backend software engineering experience, ideally with a focus on AI agents, memory/retrieval systems, simulation environments, or evaluation frameworks. Exceptional candidates with less experience will be considered.
• You are highly proficient in Python and have built LLM agents or similar AI systems.
• You bring depth in backend and distributed systems (Postgres, orchestration, infrastructure) and have built consumer-facing products.
• Early-stage startup experience (Series D or earlier) is strongly preferred.
• You hold a CS degree or have equivalent technical expertise.
• You are able to work in-person, full-time, 5 days a week in San Francisco or New York.
• You communicate at a native level in English.
  
  

What Is Offered

• Salary range of $160,000 to $210,000, plus 1–2% founding-team-level equity.
• Visa transfers supported (OPT, H1B) for candidates already authorized to work in the US.
• The chance to define the technical foundation and culture of a new AI company, with massive ownership over product direction.
• Backing from leading venture firms and the resources of a studio-in-residence at IDEO.