Founding AI Engineer

Arkadia Talent; Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful equity

Job summary

Arkadia Talent is seeking a Founding AI Engineer in Sydney to architect the intelligence layer powering a platform. You will work with founders, operators and engineers to deploy production-grade AI systems that create measurable leverage across multiple businesses.

This role suits someone who loves first-principles building, thrives in ambiguity and wants to own and shape a platform at the edge of applied AI.

Qualifications

• Proven experience building with LLMs, agents or production AI systems.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals across backend, cloud and data infrastructure.
• Excellent product intuition and obsession with solving real user problems.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity with evolving requirements.

Responsibilities

• Build and scale applied AI systems.
• Design and deploy multi-agent workflows that automate complex processes end to end.
• Develop knowledge systems including RAG architectures and retrieval pipelines.
• Translate operational complexity into reusable platform primitives for portfolio companies.
• Drive architecture decisions around latency, reliability and inference economics.
• Partner with portfolio businesses to deploy practical AI solutions with measurable impact.

Skills

LLMs & Agents

Backend & Cloud

Data Infrastructure

Product Intuition

Ambiguity Tolerance

Tools

GCP

Observability Tools

Workflow Orchestration

Job description

Sydney CBD | 5 days in office, | Permanent

Attractive Salary Package + meaningful equity

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Founding AI Engineer to join at the ground floor and help architect the intelligence layer that powers the entire platform. You will work directly alongside founders, operators and engineers to design and deploy production grade AI systems that create measurable operational leverage across multiple businesses.

This is a rare opportunity for someone who loves building from first principles, thrives in ambiguity and wants to work at the edge of applied AI.

You will move between rapid experimentation and long term platform thinking, solving difficult real world problems rather than developing prototypes that never leave the lab.

What You’ll Be Doing

Build and scale applied AI systems

• Design and deploy multi agent workflows that automate complex operational processes end to end
• Build production grade LLM infrastructure including orchestration, retrieval, evaluation and observability
• Develop knowledge systems including RAG architectures, structured data layers and intelligent retrieval pipelines
• Translate operational complexity into reusable platform primitives that scale across multiple portfolio companies

Own platform perfor

• Drive decisions across architecture, latency, reliability and inference economics
• Improve system quality through evaluation frameworks and continuous learning loops
• Build for production outcomes rather than experimentation

Partner deeply with oprators

• Work directly with portfolio businesses to identify bottlenecks and deploy practical AI solutions
• Rapidly test, iterate and operationalise ideas with measurable business impact
• Influence product direction through strong engineering judgement and customer empathy

Help shape the company

• Establish engineering standards, culture and technical direction
• Contribute to platform strategy and future acquisition integration models
• Be part of building a company designed to compound over decades

About You

You’re an exceptional builder who combines technical depth with product instinct.

You may currently be:

• A Founding Engineer or early employee at a startup
• A CTO or technical founder looking to return to hands on building
• A Staff or Principal Engineer wanting greater ownership and impact

You’ll likely bring:

• Proven experience building with LLMs, agents or production AI systems
• Strong software engineering fundamentals across backend, cloud and data infrastructure
• Strong product intuition and obsession with solving real user problems
• Comfort operating in ambiguity with incomplete data and evolving requirements
• High ownership, strong execution and low ego
• Experience building AI products from zero to one
• Exposure to fintech, services businesses or operational platforms
• Experience with agent orchestration, evaluation frameworks or workflow automation
• Experience across GCP, event driven systems or modern full stack environments