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: Senior AI Engineer – StudioLocation: New York, NY or Chicago, ILCompany Stage of Funding: Growth-Stage / PE-Backed Venture StudioOffice Type: Hybrid (3 Days/Week In Office)Salary: $190,000 – $250,000 Base + Bonus + Equity / Long-Term Incentives
Company Description
Our client is building and launching AI-native businesses through a unique venture studio model that combines the speed and ownership of an early-stage startup with significant institutional backing and established distribution.
The studio works with validated market opportunities and builds new businesses from concept through production and product-market fit. Engineers operate like founding team members—working alongside product strategists and customers to identify the right problems, build the first product, launch it to real users, and rapidly iterate based on market feedback.
This is an opportunity for an entrepreneurial AI engineer who wants meaningful ownership across multiple 01 ventures without sacrificing the resources and stability of an established platform.
What You Will Do
- Build end-to-end AI products for new ventures from initial concept through production and product-market fit
- Design and develop agentic systems involving LLMs, retrieval, orchestration, tool integrations, and evaluation frameworks
- Take products from 01, rapidly identifying the smallest technical solution that can validate customer value
- Own AI systems after launch, including reliability, evaluation, monitoring, latency, quality, and cost
- Work directly with product strategists, customers, and design partners to determine both what should be built and how it should be built
- Develop reusable AI infrastructure and technical primitives that accelerate future ventures
- Make architecture and product tradeoffs in highly ambiguous environments
- Move rapidly between different industries, customer problems, and technical environments
- Contribute to both technical execution and commercial product decisions
Ideal Candidate Background
- 3–7 years of professional engineering experience
- Proven experience shipping end-to-end AI products into production with real users
- Hands-on experience building agentic AI systems involving agents, retrieval, orchestration, tool integrations, and evaluations
- Demonstrated 01 product-building experience through a startup, side project, internal product, or independently owned initiative
- Strong software engineering fundamentals with the ability to own systems from architecture through production
- Experience operating AI systems after launch and solving real-world reliability and performance issues
- Strong product instincts and comfort working directly with non-technical stakeholders
- Ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments
Preferred
- Experience at a high-performing AI startup, quantitative trading firm, or rigorous technology organization
- Founding engineer, early engineer, founder, or entrepreneurial side-project experience
- Strong Python experience
- Experience with RAG, retrieval systems, model serving, CI/CD, observability, and evaluation frameworks
- STEM degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, or a related field
- Strong understanding of business models and commercial product development
Compensation & Benefits
- $190,000 – $250,000 base salary
- Performance-based compensation
- Competitive equity and long-term ownership opportunities
- Exposure to multiple venture creation opportunities
- Opportunity to take products from concept through product-market fit
- Significant technical and product ownership
- Hybrid environment in New York or Chicago
- Visa transfers supported
This role is particularly well suited for an engineer who has considered becoming a founder or founding engineer and wants to repeatedly build new AI businesses while retaining access to capital, customers, and an experienced operating platform.