Founding Engineer – SF Hackerhouse (Visa sponsored; $3M pre-seed)

Clera Labs, Inc.; Karlsruhe; On-site; EUR 156,000 - 207,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Experienced founders and A players

True ownership without micromanagement

Work on challenging projects

Job summary

A fast-growing AI startup is seeking a Founding Engineer to join their team in San Francisco. This role involves automating the headhunting process and directly working with the CTO. Candidates should have strong experience in TypeScript and React, alongside AI technologies. This is an opportunity to have a significant impact in a dynamic startup environment with a hands-on approach to product development. The position offers unique benefits including visa support and a collaborative working atmosphere.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering background, particularly in TypeScript and React.
• Experience working with AI technologies and LLM APIs.
• Ability to take ownership of projects from concept to deployment.

Responsibilities

• Automate headhunting processes through innovative engineering solutions.
• Work closely with the CTO and deliver features to production daily.
• Engage with customers to iterate based on their feedback.

Skills

TypeScript

React

AI Interaction

Startup Mindset

Supabase

Prisma

Typesense

LLM APIs

Ownership

Tools

Supabase

Prisma

Typesense

LLM APIs

Trigger.dev

Job description

We’re a German founding team that just raised a $3M pre‑seed round from top‑tier investors and we’re now looking for a Founding Engineer from the DACH region to join us in our San Francisco Hackerhouse. We’ll fly you out, cover your visa sponsorship, and bring you directly into the center of the action.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the most ambitious engineers in DACH to build alongside us in SF and shape the future of AI recruiting.

About Clera

Clera is a fast‑growing AI start‑up reimagining how top talent finds their dream jobs. We’re already working with leading, VC‑backed startups such as Mintlify, Luminai, and Windsurf – many in AI, all VC‑backed. We believe recruitment needs to be talent‑first to make it easy to get in touch with those companies, be coached in the journey and actually get hired. We just raised our big pre‑seed and are now growing as quickly as possible.

Thousands of talents engage with Clera every week. We’ve connected many of them with companies where they’ve landed exciting new roles. With the traditional $600B headhunting industry ripe for AI‑driven disruption, we are aiming to build a massive company, providing better outcomes for talents and companies. We’re at a pivotal moment—right before liftoff. Early enough that you’ll get meaningful ownership. Far enough that we’ve got a product, paying customers, and a team of A‑players.

The Role

• Automating the work of headhunters is a massive tech challenge - and opportunity. We are looking for an exceptional founding engineer.
• You will work directly with our CTO & Co‑Founder Daniel and our engineers and ship your own features to production every day. You will have a strong impact on building our fully agentic system to automate the headhunting process end‑to‑end.

Your Experience

• Very strong software engineering background: Experience in TypeScript and React
• Strong practical experience working with AI: We work 24/7 in Cursor - ideally you have experience coding with AI. Bonus if you have an experience working with LLM APIs
• Startup mindset - high agency, resourceful, and obsessed with creating value

Who You Are

• Take full ownership of projects, from concept to deployment and do whatever it takes to get the job done.
• Write code fast and scrap it even faster, but know when to transition to building for scale and quality.
• Enjoy talking to customers and iterating based on feedback.
• Are willing to work hard, to create something new with a lot of impact, changing how millions of talents find their jobs in the future.

Tech Stack

TypeScript, React, Cursor, Supabase, Prisma, Typesense, LLM APIs, Trigger.dev

Working in hacker‑house in SF

• Live & build with a small founding team
• Zero commute, 10× feedback loops & team bonding
• Our international team flew in from Germany, US, Sweden, France
• Very intense but also extremely productive & fun to live and work from the same AirBnb as a team
• We can support with visa processes

Perks

• Experienced founders and a team of A Players
• True ownership, no micromanagement, shipping to production every day
• Work on some of the most technically challenging projects as we scale our marketplace