Founding Engineer

Job Title: Founding Engineer

Package: $120k - $180k + equity

Location: New York City (3 days per week in office)

Launchpad Recruitment are partnering with a high-growth, VC-backed (GV & YC) AI-native investment infrastructure company building the operating system for alternative investments.

We’re hiring a Founding Engineer to join a small, elite team building mission-critical AI systems from the ground up.

This is a true 0→1, founder-mentality role - ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity, owns problems end-to-end, and has already shipped production systems with real user traction.

The company is a Series A business modernising an $11T alternative investments market that still runs on heavily manual, legacy processes. The platform is already processing $5B+ in transactions and is backed by top-tier investors including Google Ventures and Y Combinator.

The Role

You’ll sit at the core of the engineering team building AI systems that replace manual operational workflows with scalable automation.

Key responsibilities:

→    Build and deploy AI-powered agents to automate ingestion, parsing, and standardisation of complex financial documents

→    Own end-to-end system architecture (design, build, deploy, operate)

→    Lead consolidation of multiple engineering systems into a unified, scalable platform

→    Improve CI/CD pipelines to increase deployment velocity and system reliability

→    Work directly with operations teams to map manual workflows into automated systems

→    Own production systems handling real financial data and live customer workflows

Tech Environment

→    Python

→    Angular

→    React

→    Express.js

→    PostgreSQL

→    AWS

The team care far more about engineering ownership, product thinking, and production experience than matching every technology exactly.

Why this role is different

→    Direct work with the CTO on high-impact systems from day one

→    Full ownership of production systems, not feature tickets

→    Building AI infrastructure that replaces real operational cost in financial services

→    True 0→1 environment - ambiguous, fast-moving, high trust

→    Significant autonomy and product influence from day one

What we’re looking for

→    Proven experience shipping 0→1 products with real production user traction

→    Strong backend or full-stack engineering background

→    Experience building and deploying AI systems or agents into production

→    Startup background (Seed → Series C preferred)

→    Strong system design ability - scalable architecture, edge cases, reliability

→    Comfortable operating in ambiguity with founder-level ownership

→    Track record of shipping quickly and iterating in production environments

Compensation & Logistics

→    $120,000 – $180,000 base salary + competitive equity

→    Hybrid working - 3–5 days onsite in New York City

→    Backed by top-tier investors (GV, YC)

Ideal Candidate Profile

Most likely someone who has:

→    Worked in early-stage startups or accelerator environments

→    Built and shipped production AI / backend systems end-to-end

→    Operated with founder-level ownership (not just feature delivery)

→    Strong opinions on system design and building for scale

→    Experience turning messy operational problems into working systems