Founding AI Engineer

Optimized, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Optimized, Inc. is looking for a Founding AI Engineer to architect the agent platform for AI-driven operations in Fortune 500 firms. This role involves owning the development lifecycle, enhancing reliability, and setting engineering standards.

The ideal candidate has over 4 years of experience in production software, particularly in distributed systems, with a strong command of Python and TypeScript. Compensation ranges from $150,000 to $220,000 plus equity.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in building production software.
• Experience with distributed systems and LLM-powered agents.
• Strong skills in Python and TypeScript.

Responsibilities

• Architect the agent platform for multi-step work.
• Own development lifecycle from pilot to deployment.
• Build guardrails and observability for production systems.
• Drive inference and serving for performance.
• Set engineering standards with the founding team.

Skills

Production software development

Distributed systems

Python

TypeScript

Reliability testing

Job description

Optimized deploys AI agents into the operations that run the physical economy: the factory floors, foundries, and procurement teams at Fortune 500 manufacturers and government organizations. Turning a capable model into a system that runs reliably in production is the hardest part, and we need a founding engineer to own it.

As a Founding AI Engineer, you'll architect the platform our agents run on: orchestration, tool and integration interfaces, inference and serving, observability, and the guardrails that keep agents safe in production. You'll own the agent development lifecycle from first pilot to scaled deployment.

Compensation range for this role is $150,000 - $220,000 + equity.

What you'll do

• Architect the agent platform: You'll design the orchestration, tool interfaces, and runtime that let our agents execute multi-step work reliably across complex supply chain systems.
• Own the development lifecycle: You'll have complete ownership from pilot through deployment, defining the standards and tooling that make agents fast to build and safe to ship.
• Make agents reliable: You'll build the guardrails, observability, and recovery logic that turn impressive demos into systems enterprises trust with mission-critical operations.
• Serve models in production: You'll own inference and serving across multiple providers, driving down latency and cost without sacrificing reliability.
• Set the engineering bar: You'll work directly with the founders to define our platform architecture and standards, and set the example for what world-class AI engineering looks like here.

What you'll bring

• Have 4+ years building production software, including owning complex distributed systems end-to-end
• Have built or deployed LLM-powered agents, tool-use systems, or orchestration frameworks in production
• Are fluent in Python and TypeScript in complex products
• Have strong instincts for reliability: testing, observability, and graceful failure in distributed systems
• Are willing to work hard, move fast, and grow quickly in a rapidly changing environment
• Are opinionated, curious, and energized by ambiguous, high-stakes problems