Chief Engineer

Success Matcher Recruitment; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 350,000 - 520,000; Full time

Job summary

Success Matcher Recruitment is recruiting for a fast-growing AI startup in San Francisco. The role requires leading architecture and delivering production-grade AI systems in regulated financial environments, with direct collaboration with founders and senior engineers.

The candidate will own a core technical domain, guide engineers, and shape the engineering culture, deploying cutting-edge tools and frameworks in a high-stakes setting.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of engineering experience with leadership roles
• Proven experience owning large-scale production systems
• Deep expertise in AI, LLMs, and agentic systems
• Strong hands-on coding and system architecture skills

Responsibilities

• Own a core technical domain end-to-end, driving architecture and business outcomes
• Architect and build production systems through hands-on technical leadership
• Partner with founders and product leadership on high-impact architectural decisions
• Guide and unblock senior engineers while elevating the technical bar
• Build systems across AI agents, runtimes, conversational/voice AI, data platforms and AI-native product experiences
• Drive an AI-native engineering culture using frontier tools like Claude Code and Cursor

Skills

AI systems

System architecture

Leadership

Production systems

Coding

Regulated environments

Education

BS/MS in CS or STEM

Tools

Claude Code

Cursor

Job description

Our client is a fast-growing, venture-backed AI startup building production-grade agentic AI systems for the financial services sector. Currently cash-flow positive with $30M in Series A funding, their platform reaches over 10 million users across 100+ financial institutions.

Why You Should Join

• Work at the rare intersection of startup growth, financial stability, and real-world AI scale.
• Own a core engineering domain with the equity, autonomy, and impact of an early founding team member.
• Deploy production-grade AI systems directly into regulated, high-stakes environments rather than building experimental prototypes.

What You'll Do

• Own a core technical domain end-to-end, driving architecture, engineering standards, and business outcomes.
• Architect and build production systems directly through hands-on technical leadership.
• Partner closely with founders and product leadership on high-impact architectural decisions.
• Guide and unblock senior engineers while elevating the overall technical bar.
• Build systems across AI agents, AI runtimes, conversational/voice AI, data platforms, and AI-native product experiences.
• Drive an AI-native engineering culture using frontier tools such as Claude Code and Cursor.

Required Experience

• 10+ years of engineering experience, with prior roles as Principal Engineer, Staff Engineer, Chief Engineer, or Technical Founder.
• Proven experience building and owning large-scale production systems with 0 to 1 delivery.
• Deep expertise in AI, LLMs, agentic systems, and modern AI development workflows.
• Strong hands-on coding and system architecture capabilities.
• Background in conversational AI, voice AI, RAG, AI evaluation systems, or fintech/regulated financial environments.
• BS degree in Computer Science or a STEM-related field.
• Ability to work on-site 5 days a week in San Francisco, CA.