Founding AI Engineer

HartleyCo; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a high-intensity, YC-backed startup as a Founding AI Engineer. This is a rare opportunity to build production-grade AI systems in a mission-driven team. The company has raised $2.5M and is rapidly scaling, working with enterprise clients. If you are exceptionally smart, hands-on with LLMs, and thrive in a fast-paced environment, this role is for you. You'll collaborate closely with founders and the CTO to shape the AI architecture and product roadmap. If you're ready to make an impact from the ground up, we want to hear from you!

Qualifications

• Must have raw intelligence and a proven track record of high achievement.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs and building AI pipelines is essential.

Responsibilities

• Architect and scale intelligent LLM pipelines and AI systems.
• Own end-to-end ML workflows from experimentation to deployment.

Skills

Python

LLMs

Agentic AI

Evaluation Frameworks

Education

Degree from a top-tier school

Published papers

Tools

OpenAI evals

Job description

This range is provided by HartleyCo. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

$140,000.00/yr - $180,000.00/yr

Direct message the job poster from HartleyCo

Headhunter | Founding Engineers & Researchers | Partner to YC & Tier 1 VC PortCo | Facilitating Growth

Company Overview:

Join a high-intensity, YC-backed startup that recently graduated from YC. The company raised $2.5M in Seed Funding in December and is ranked among the top 10 companies in its batch in terms of revenue. They are 7 months into product development, with a San Francisco-based HQ and a small, focused team. The company is actively working with enterprise clients and is rapidly scaling its team and product delivery. The team is mission-driven, ambitious, and execution-focused.

Role Summary:

We are looking for a Founding AI Engineer to join the core technical team and play a pivotal role in building production-grade AI systems. This is a rare opportunity to join an early-stage, rapidly scaling startup post-YC.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architect, build, and scale intelligent LLM pipelines and agent-based AI systems
• Own end-to-end ML workflows from experimentation to deployment
• Collaborate closely with the founders and CTO to shape the AI/LLM architecture and product roadmap

Top Priorities in a Candidate:

• Raw Intelligence: Must be exceptionally smart with a proven track record of high achievement (e.g., top-tier school, Olympiad/ICPC, published papers, high-impact projects, former founder, or founding engineer experience).
• Hands-on with LLMs: Strong preference for candidates with experience in building agentic AI pipelines or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) stacks. This role is not purely research-focused but demands the ability to build usable production systems.
• Startup DNA: Must exhibit high ownership, grit, and a strong willingness to work in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment (80+ hours/week).
• Culture Fit: Comfortable working in an intense, no-nonsense environment. While the role may not be client-facing, a good cultural fit with the internal team is essential.
• Must-have: Python
• Strongly preferred: Experience with LLMs, agentic AI, and evaluation frameworks (e.g., OpenAI evals, custom evaluation frameworks).
• Nice-to-have: Basic infrastructure knowledge is a bonus but not a requirement.

Interview Process:

• Initial Call: 30-45 minutes with the Founder
• Technical Interview: 45 minutes with the CTO
• Final Stage: In-person interview in San Francisco (travel covered if needed) or a virtual 1-day work exercise if in-person is not feasible.

This is an exciting opportunity for a driven AI engineer to take on a critical, hands-on role in a rapidly growing company. If you are ready for a challenge and want to make an impact from the ground up, we want to hear from you!

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Associate

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Information Technology

• Industries

  IT Services and IT Consulting

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