Founding Engiener

TalentPluto, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Pluto is building an AI-native professional network. We’re looking for a Founding Engineer to help build this product from the ground up, working directly with the founders to create intelligent agents that search, reason, remember, and act on behalf of users.

You’ll tackle conversational AI, large-scale people search, data infrastructure, and consumer experiences, owning major parts of the product and helping define our technical direction as we scale.

Qualifications

• Experience with building production-grade web apps using modern JS stack.
• Proven ability to ship products end-to-end with minimal guidance.
• Experience with AI agents, LLMs, or AI-powered workflows is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own major parts of the product end-to-end, from architecture to user experiences.
• Build AI agents that understand intent, reason, and take action.
• Design scalable systems for people search and recommendations.
• Collaborate with founders to turn ambitious ideas into shipped features.
• Help shape engineering culture and practices as the team scales.
• Hire and mentor future engineers as the company grows.

Skills

TypeScript

React

Next.js

Node.js

PostgreSQL

LLMs / AI engineering

Architectural design

Product ownership

Startup mindset

Job description

Founding Engineer @ Pluto

About Pluto

Pluto is building the headless professional network for the AI era. We started by building AI technology that understands professionals beyond their resumes and connects them with companies. Today, over 30,000 professionals have spoken with our AI, and agents at 50+ companies, including Mercor, Warp, and David AI, use our data to hire. We've grown that business to a $2.6M annualized revenue run rate.

Now we're taking what we've built and making it available to everyone. Professional networking today is painfully manual. You search LinkedIn, sift through profiles, find contact information, send cold messages, and hope someone responds. We've already built AI systems that handle all of this process for companies. We believe everyone should have access to that same capability.

We're building an AI-native professional network where you can simply tell an agent who you want to meet. It finds the right people, understands why they're relevant, and helps turn those searches into meaningful connections. Our ambition is to fundamentally change how people discover and connect with one another.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Founding Engineer to help build this new product from the ground up.

You’ll work directly with the founders to build intelligent agents that search, reason, remember, and take action on behalf of users. The work spans conversational AI, large-scale people search, data infrastructure, and consumer-facing product experiences.

This is a true 0-to-1 opportunity, but not at a company starting from zero. You’ll be building on top of existing technology, proprietary data, and a proven business, while owning major parts of a new product and helping define our technical direction.

We’re looking for someone who wants to move fast, solve ambitious technical problems, and help build something that millions of people use.

Who We're Looking For

We’re looking for an exceptional engineer who can own ambitious technical problems end-to-end and thrive in a fast-moving, early-stage environment.

What we're looking for:

• -Full-stack engineering: Strong experience with TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, and PostgreSQL.
• -AI engineering: Experience building production applications with LLMs, agents, tool calling, or AI-powered workflows.
• -Technical judgment: Ability to design scalable systems and make pragmatic architectural decisions.
• -Product ownership: Proven ability to build and ship products end-to-end with minimal oversight.
• -Startup mindset: Comfortable moving quickly, navigating ambiguity, and working directly with founders.

Bonus points:

• -Voice AI or conversational agent experience
• -Search, recommendation systems, or data infrastructure
• -Early-stage startup or founding engineer experience
• -Cloud infrastructure, deployment, and production reliability

What You’ll Do

• -Own major parts of our product end-to-end, from architecture and infrastructure to polished user experiences.
• -Build and improve AI agents that can understand user intent, reason across complex information, and take real-world actions.
• -Design scalable systems for people search, data retrieval, and personalized recommendations.
• -Work directly with founders and users to turn ambitious ideas into products people love.
• -Make foundational technical decisions and establish engineering practices as we scale.
• -Help shape our engineering culture and hire future members of the team.