Founding Engineer
We’re supporting a client with the recruitment requirement outlined below. If your recruiting expertise and networks align with the role, please apply to express your interest.
Once approved to work on the opportunity, you’ll receive the full brief, including the client name, role details, and commercial terms.
Role Details
Location: San Francisco, California
Salary: $200,000–$250,000 per year
Equity: 0.5%–1%
Employment: Full-time, in-office, 5 days per week
Experience: 3+ years; 5+ preferred
Visa Sponsorship: Not available; candidates must be authorized to work in the US
Industry: Developer Tools / AI
About the Company
An early-stage AI startup is building an experimentation platform that tests how AI coding agents interact with developer tools. The platform runs real coding sessions to evaluate whether AI agents can discover, use, and successfully work with a product, helping companies identify friction and improve adoption.
The company is focused on moving quickly, testing ideas with customers, and using feedback to improve its product.
About the Role
The company is hiring its third engineer to take ownership of core backend systems and infrastructure. You’ll build and scale the systems that run coding-agent sessions, including sandboxes, AI gateways, and orchestration infrastructure.
This is a hands-on individual contributor role for an engineer who can make independent technical decisions, build systems from scratch, and deliver improvements quickly. The goal is to take ownership of significant backend components within the first two to three months.
Responsibilities
Take ownership of core backend systems and infrastructure.
Build and scale infrastructure for coding-agent sessions, including sandboxes, gateways, and orchestration.
Ship features directly to customers and iterate quickly based on feedback.
Make independent architectural decisions and explain the reasoning behind them.
Improve system reliability and scalability.
Reduce the engineering team's dependence on existing technical leadership.
Requirements
At least 3 years of engineering experience, with 5+ years preferred.
Experience at a fast-growing Seed or Series A startup; a recent role at a startup is essential.
Strong backend engineering and distributed-systems fundamentals.
Proven experience designing and building production systems from scratch.
Experience with AWS, networking, containers, or sandbox infrastructure.
Familiarity with PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, TypeScript, Next.js/React, and Python/Django.
Regular use of AI coding agents and enthusiasm for the technology.
High autonomy, strong ownership, and the ability to deliver quickly.
Fluent spoken and written English.
Availability to work in person in San Francisco five days per week.
Experience with agent infrastructure or developer tools is a strong advantage.
Interview Process
Initial Screen
Technical Screen
On-site Interview
Offer and Hiring
🌍 Remote from anywhere in the globe
Workplace, Culture & Diversity
Corporate culture is essential to allow the organization to differentiate itself. In terms of image on the one hand, it has strengths both internally and externally to consumers. It is indeed a source of cohesion and motivation of employees and it limits conflicts. With customers, it conveys a positive image and can develop a feeling of closeness to the company or even become a criterion of choice.
About Fractal Talent
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