Founding Engineer

Alldus; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Alldus is assisting a New York-based early-stage AI startup in recruiting a Founding Engineer who will shape the product vision and technical direction, building AI systems that accelerate scientific discovery through multimodal learning and advanced data platforms.

You will own the full stack from concept to production, design scalable ML pipelines, and collaborate with researchers to deliver production-grade software with speed and reliability.

Qualifications

• Proven experience designing, building and deploying production software in startup or research settings.
• Strong ML expertise in at least two areas listed: Geometric Deep Learning, GNNs, Diffusion Models, Generative AI or ML Interatomic Potentials.
• Experience delivering AI-powered products that solve real-world customer challenges.
• Strong backend, ML infra and cloud engineering capabilities.
• Hands-on with scalable data pipelines and production AI systems.
• Ability to own the full product lifecycle from concept to deployment.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop and deploy enterprise-grade AI solutions that empower scientific teams.
• Build advanced multimodal AI systems, including computer vision models, speech-to-text capabilities and intelligent AI agents.
• Develop scalable machine learning pipelines and data infrastructure to support scientific applications.
• Create AI models that analyze experimental data, uncover insights, predict outcomes and optimize processes.
• Convert complex laboratory data into structured, high-quality datasets for machine learning development.
• Work closely with research partners and customers to gather feedback, validate solutions and continuously improve products.
• Shape the company's technical architecture, engineering practices and long‑term AI roadmap.
• Partner with founders and scientific leaders to drive product development and technical decision‑making.
• Deliver robust, production‑ready software with a focus on speed, quality and scalability.

Skills

Startup experience

Geometric Deep Learning

Graph Neural Networks

Diffusion Models

Generative AI

ML Interatomic Potentials

ML infrastructure

Backend development

Cloud-based environments

Job description

Our client, an early-stage AI startup, is hiring a Founding Engineer to join the team in New York. The successful candidate will play a key role in shaping both the product vision and technical direction of the business, building cutting-edge AI systems that accelerate scientific discovery through intelligent automation, multimodal machine learning and advanced data platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop and deploy enterprise-grade AI solutions that empower scientific teams.

• Build advanced multimodal AI systems, including computer vision models, speech-to-text capabilities and intelligent AI agents.

• Develop scalable machine learning pipelines and data infrastructure to support scientific applications.

• Create AI models that analyze experimental data, uncover insights, predict outcomes and optimize processes.

• Convert complex laboratory data into structured, high-quality datasets for machine learning development.

• Work closely with research partners and customers to gather feedback, validate solutions and continuously improve products.

• Shape the company's technical architecture, engineering practices and long‑term AI roadmap.

• Partner with founders and scientific leaders to drive product development and technical decision‑making.

• Deliver robust, production‑ready software with a focus on speed, quality and scalability.

Skillset

• Proven experience designing, building and deploying production software within a startup, research environment or leading technology organization.

• Strong machine learning expertise with deep knowledge in at least two of the following areas: Geometric Deep Learning, Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), Diffusion Models, Generative AI or ML Interatomic Potentials.

• Experience developing and delivering AI-powered products that solve real-world customer challenges.

• Strong software engineering capabilities across backend development, machine learning infrastructure and cloud-based environments.

• Hands‑on experience building scalable data pipelines, ML workflows and production AI systems.

• Ability to take ownership across the entire product lifecycle, from initial concept and experimentation through to deployment and optimization.

• Comfortable working in a fast‑paced startup environment with a high level of autonomy, ownership and accountability.

• Strong analytical, problem-solving and communication skills with the ability to collaborate across technical and scientific teams.

Benefits

• Salary: $150k - $220k DOE.