Founding AI Engineer

Egnite HR TECH; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Egnite HR TECH is seeking a Founding AI Engineer in San Francisco to own the AI layer of the product, including models, pipelines, LLM systems, and evaluation frameworks. This production-focused role carries significant ownership over architecture and future AI engineering growth.

You will ship production LLM/AI systems, own prompting and tool use, and help lay the foundation for the AI team as the company scales toward Series A and beyond.

Qualifications

• 2–4 years of experience building production AI/LLM systems.
• Proven experience shipping an AI/ML-powered system to real production users.
• Experience with LLM evaluation and production AI systems.
• Experience at a company with a strong engineering culture.
• Growth-stage startup experience preferred.
• CS degree or comparable technical background.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship production LLM/AI systems used by real customers.
• Own prompting, retrieval, tool use, agent orchestration, and fine-tuning where appropriate.
• Build LLM evaluation systems that identify regressions.
• Optimize AI systems for reliability, latency, and cost.
• Make architecture decisions and help establish the foundation for the future AI team.

Skills

AI / ML systems

Python

AI deployment

LLM integration

Education

CS degree

Tools

React

TypeScript

Node.js

Job description

Tech:** Python, LLMs, React, TypeScript, Node.js

Work Environment:** Early-stage founding role with high ownership. A six-day work week is currently expected until Series A, with flexibility around daily hours.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Founding AI Engineer to own the AI layer of the product, including models, pipelines, LLM systems, and evaluation frameworks. This is a production-focused role with significant ownership over architecture and future AI engineering growth.

What You’ll Do

• Build and ship production LLM/AI systems used by real customers.
• Own prompting, retrieval, tool use, agent orchestration, and fine-tuning where appropriate.
• Build LLM evaluation systems that identify regressions.
• Optimize AI systems for reliability, latency, and cost.
• Make architecture decisions and help establish the foundation for the future AI team.

Requirements

• **2–4 years** of experience building production AI/LLM systems.
• Proven experience shipping an **AI/ML-powered system to real production users**.
• Experience with LLM evaluation and production AI systems.
• Experience at a company with a strong engineering culture.
• Growth-stage startup experience preferred.
• CS degree or comparable technical background.

Nice to Have

• Commerce, e-commerce, marketplace, or Shopify experience.
• Open-source contributions, papers, or substantial side projects.