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Founding AI Engineer

Recruiting from Scratch

San Francisco, CA

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JOB DETAILS
SALARY
$230,000–$300,000 Per Year
SKILLS
Academic Background, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agents, Automation, Category Development, Communication Systems, Computer Science, Conversation Engine, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Engineering, Memory Hardware, Needs Assessment, Problem Solving Skills, Product Shipments, Production Systems, Salesforce.com, Seed Funding, Slack, Software Engineering, Standards Development, Startup, Systems Engineering, Team Lead/Manager, User Interface/Experience (UI/UX)
LOCATION
San Francisco, CA
POSTED
Today
Who is Recruiting from Scratch:

Recruiting from Scratch is a specialized talent firm dedicated to helping companies build exceptional teams. We partner closely with our clients to deeply understand their needs, then connect them with top-tier candidates who are not only highly skilled but also the right fit for the company's culture and vision. Our mission is simple: place the best people in the right roles to drive long-term success for both clients and candidates.



Title of Role: Founding AI Engineer (Agentic Systems / Full-Stack)
Location: San Francisco, CA
Company Stage of Funding: Seed Stage (~$7.5M raised)
Office Type: Hybrid (3-4 days/week in office)
Salary: $230,000 - $300,000 + Equity
Company Description

Our client is an early-stage, venture-backed AI startup building the next generation of "AI coworkers"-autonomous systems that can own and execute entire business workflows end-to-end. Unlike traditional AI tools that assist users, their platform is designed to replace operational work by orchestrating multi-step processes across systems.

Founded by experienced operators who previously scaled enterprise teams at leading AI companies, the company is working with top-tier design partners and is rapidly building out its founding engineering team to define this new category.
What You Will Do
  • Build core agentic systems that automate complex business workflows end-to-end
  • Design and implement multi-step AI agents with memory, reasoning, and orchestration
  • Work across the full stack (frontend, backend, and infrastructure) to ship product features
  • Partner directly with founders and customers to define product direction
  • Solve hard problems around reliability, hallucination, and system trust at scale
  • Build integrations across enterprise tools (CRM, communication, and workflow systems)
  • Own product surfaces from concept to production deployment
  • Help define engineering standards, architecture, and team culture as a founding member
Ideal Candidate Background
  • 3-10 years of software engineering experience
  • Proven experience building production AI systems (agents, not just RAG/chatbots)
  • Strong proficiency across the stack (backend + frontend as needed)
  • Experience working in early-stage startups or high-ambiguity environments
  • Deep understanding of LLM limitations (hallucination, state, reliability) and mitigation strategies
  • Strong product mindset with ability to define and build solutions end-to-end
  • High ownership, strong opinions, and ability to operate independently
Preferred
  • Experience building multi-agent or autonomous systems with real-world impact
  • Experience at top-tier AI or product-first companies (e.g., OpenAI, Scale AI, Notion, Retool)
  • Background as a founder or early engineering hire
  • Experience with workflow orchestration systems or event-driven architectures
  • Familiarity with GTM tools (Salesforce, Slack, Outreach, etc.)
  • Strong academic background in Computer Science or related field
Compensation and Benefits
  • Competitive base salary: $230,000 - $300,000
  • Founding-level equity: ~0.5% - 5% (depending on experience)
  • High ownership and direct impact on company trajectory
  • Work directly with experienced founders from top AI companies
  • Opportunity to define a new category in AI (agentic workflow automation)
  • Hybrid work in San Francisco with a small, high-caliber team
  • Fast, founder-led hiring process

This is a rare opportunity to join at the ground floor of an AI-native company building autonomous systems that fundamentally change how work gets done.

About the Company

R

Recruiting from Scratch

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