Founding AI/ML Engineer

Washington, D.C. / Philadelphia hub · Hybrid (3 days/week on-site) · Full-timeCompensation: $190,000–$200,000 + competitive equity

About the Company

Our client is building the AI-powered workflow layer for construction — one of the world's largest industries, and one that skipped the software era entirely. Subcontractors, its core customer, have seen no meaningful software innovation in 15+ years, and agents plus multimodal AI are the first real wedge in. Off-the-shelf foundation models struggle with construction diagrams because those aren't in standard training data, which makes training in-house models a core technical bet. It recently closed a seed round and is at ~$2M ARR.

Founded 2023 · 11–50 people (Seed) · Industry: Construction Tech / AI

The Role

The client is hiring a Founding AI/ML Engineer with deep computer-vision expertise to own the model-development side of the platform and lead the in-house model work that off-the-shelf foundation models can't handle.

Tech stack: Python, PyTorch, CUDA; computer vision (2D segmentation, object detection, classifiers; SAM / SAM3-tier foundation models); agentic orchestration & retrieval (LLMs, RAG, fine-tuning small language models, local vs foundation-model trade-offs).

Requirements

• Computer vision, with 2D segmentation depth
• Python + PyTorch + CUDA
• Trains in-house models, not just fine-tunes
• Construction diagrams / floor plans a bonus
• East Coast (D.C. / Philadelphia hub), 3 days hybrid

Nice to Haves

• 2D-segmentation expertise with published work in floor-plan localization, raster-to-sequence, structural priors, or comparable architectural CV
• Personal or professional exposure to construction diagrams, floor plans, or technical drawings — genuinely rare and high-signal
• PyTorch + CUDA fluency with an architectural-model-improvement track record (not just fine-tuning APIs)
• Research-trained but now hands-on
• Agentic orchestration / retrieval experience as a secondary skill

Why Join

• Own the model layer end to end: the founding AI/ML hire, owning the entire model-development side of the platform and setting technical direction
• A genuinely hard, defensible problem: construction diagrams aren't in any foundation model's training data, so you train in-house models — real CV depth, not API wrapping
• Early-stage upside: a meaningful early-employee grant, a fresh seed round, ~$2M ARR with a credible 10x plan over the next 12 months

Details

• Location — Washington, D.C. / Philadelphia hub
• Work policy — Hybrid, 3 days/week on-site
• Compensation — $190,000–$200,000 + competitive equity
• Visa sponsorship — Available (H-1B)
• Employment type — Full-time