Founding AI Engineer

davidjoseph-co; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 145,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

davidjoseph-co, a venture-backed startup, is seeking a founding engineer in San Francisco to build AI agents and end-to-end workflows that power the product. You will work directly with the founding team to shape the roadmap from day one.

You will ship customer-facing features, iterate in a fast-growing environment, and leverage AI coding tools daily. This on-site role offers equity and substantial ownership from the start.

Qualifications

• 2 to 5 years of experience as a full stack engineer with exposure to AI-powered applications
• Recent track record (within the last 1 to 2 years) of shipping customer-facing products end-to-end
• Hands-on, daily use of AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Codex, or similar
• Experience at an early-stage startup during a high-growth phase
• Strong Python skills
• A computer science degree or equivalent technical foundation
• A language-agnostic mindset, comfortable picking up new tools and switching between languages as needed

Responsibilities

• Build AI agents and workflows for real insurance use cases
• Ship customer-facing product features end-to-end
• Iterate quickly alongside the founding team in an ambiguous, high-growth setting
• Use modern AI coding tools as a core part of your daily workflow

Skills

Python

React

AI coding tools

Full stack

Education

BS CS or equivalent

Tools

Claude Code

Codex

Job description

Our client is a well-capitalized, venture-backed startup (founded 2025) building an AI platform for the commercial insurance industry. Their product automates the document-heavy workflows that slow insurance professionals down, in a large market that is only beginning to adopt AI. You would be one of the first engineers on a small team, shaping the product from the ground up.

Founded 2025 · ~8 people · Industry: AI, Insurance

The Role

As a founding engineer, you’ll build the AI agents and workflows that power the product and own customer-facing features end-to-end, working closely with the founding team in a fast-moving environment.

What you’ll be doing

• Build AI agents and workflows for real insurance use cases
• Ship customer-facing product features end-to-end
• Iterate quickly alongside the founding team in an ambiguous, high-growth setting
• Use modern AI coding tools as a core part of your daily workflow

Tech stack: Python, React, AI coding tools

Requirements

• 2 to 5 years of experience as a full stack engineer with exposure to AI-powered applications
• A recent track record (within the last 1 to 2 years) of shipping customer-facing products end-to-end
• Hands-on, daily use of AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Codex, or similar
• Experience at an early-stage startup (Seed to Series B) during a high-growth phase
• Strong Python skills
• A computer science degree or equivalent technical foundation
• A language-agnostic mindset, comfortable picking up new tools and switching between languages as needed

Nice to Haves

• Prior experience in an AI Product Engineer or Applied AI Engineer role
• Exposure to React

Why Join

• A true founding-engineer seat with day-one ownership of product
• Ship to real customers immediately in a large, fast-growing market
• Well-capitalized and venture-backed, with an experienced founder

Details

• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Work policy: On-site
• Compensation: $145,000–$240,000 + equity
• Visa sponsorship: Open to visa transfers (e.g. OPT, H-1B transfers)
• Employment type: Full-time