Founding AI Engineer

Barrington James; California (MO); On-site; USD 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Early-stage equity

Job summary

Barrington James is seeking a Founding AI Engineer to help build the intelligence layer of a next-generation AI product. You will shape the architecture and build from scratch, tackling problems that don’t have a playbook and taking founding-level ownership and impact.

You’ll work at the intersection of AI, hardware and human-computer interaction, with meaningful early-stage equity on offer for an exceptional engineer who thrives in ambiguity and wants to create something truly new.

Qualifications

• 2+ years building and shipping Gen AI systems.
• Strong in Python, LLMs, VLMs and multimodal AI.
• Experience with context engineering, RAG, memory, embeddings.
• Builder mentality with hands-on approach.
• Thrives in ambiguity and takes ownership.
• Founding-level ownership and impact.
• Work at intersection of AI, hardware and HCI.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement the intelligence layer from scratch.
• Shape architecture for a next-generation AI product.
• Build memory, retrieval, reasoning and agents.
• Own technical direction at founding level.

Skills

Python

LLMs

VLMs

Multimodal AI

Memory systems

RAG

Embeddings

Agentic systems

Tools

PyTorch

Job description

Founding AI Engineer - Context, Memory & Personalisation

I am working with an ambitious early stage deep tech start up, who are building at the frontier of AI, hardware and human computer interaction.

They’re looking for a Founding AI Engineer to help build the intelligence layer of a next-generation AI product, from multimodal understanding and memory to retrieval, reasoning and agents.

This is a genuine 0-1, founding opportunity. You’ll help shape the architecture, build from scratch and work on problems that don’t have a playbook.

We’re looking for someone who:

• Has 2+ years building and shipping Gen AI systems.
• Is strong in Python, LLMs, VLMs and multimodal AI.
• Understands context engineering, RAG, memory, embeddings and agentic systems.
• Has a builder mentality, when you hear a vague idea, your hands start moving.
• Thrives in ambiguity, takes ownership and wants to build something meaningful.
• Founding-level ownership and impact.
• Work at the intersection of AI, hardware and human-computer interaction.
• Meaningful early-stage equity.
• Build the intelligence layer from the ground up.

If you’re an exceptional AI engineer who wants to build something genuinely new, I’d love to hear from you.