Founding Engineer
clera · 20 hours ago
About the Role
This is a founding engineering seat at an early-stage AI startup in the sports and sales automation space, joining a small team building multi-modal AI agents across voice, SMS, and email. You will own one of four core domains end-to-end, making product decisions directly alongside customers with no dedicated PM. The company reached seven figures of ARR within its first several months, and this role offers a clear path into leadership or a deep IC track.
What You'll Do
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Own an entire product domain from architecture through daily production feature shipping.
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Join customer calls, synthesize feedback, and drive product decisions independently.
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Build and optimize multi-modal agents targeting sub-500ms voice latency, high SMS response rates, and persistent conversation state across channels.
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Define the architecture and quality bar for non-deterministic systems, including evals, prompt versioning, guardrails, and drift detection.
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Work full-stack across React/Next.js frontends, Node.js backends, and Python voice services.
What We're Looking For
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3 to 8 years of full-stack engineering experience with a track record of shipping 0-to-1 products at high-growth startups, as a founder, or in new vertical teams at large tech companies.
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Strong proficiency in TypeScript with production experience using Node.js, React, and Next.js.
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Hands-on production experience with LLM APIs or agent SDKs such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Vercel AI SDK, or similar frameworks (not just tutorials or prototypes).
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Depth in at least one of: production voice or SMS agents, long-running agent state and memory, B2B2C or marketplace product architecture, or agent evals and guardrails.
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Proven ability to conduct customer discovery calls and make product decisions without a dedicated PM.
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Comfort operating without structure, defining processes from scratch, and sustaining high intensity during launches.
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Python experience with real-time voice pipelines (LiveKit, Deepgram, STT/TTS) or evaluation tooling is a plus.
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Familiarity with infrastructure tools such as Redis, BullMQ, Vercel, Render, Sentry, or PostHog is a plus.
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Founder experience with verifiable traction (revenue, funding, or acquisition) is a plus, as are strong CS fundamentals from a rigorous program.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary range: $180,000 to $250,000 USD annually. Equity is available given the founding nature of the role. Visa sponsorship is not available.
Location
On-site, five days per week in New York City, New York, USA (Chelsea area).