Founding Engineer

Tenth Revolution Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Tenth Revolution Group is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer / Founding Engineer to join an early-stage technology startup transforming construction and architecture through software and AI. You will work directly with the founding team, own core backend systems from design to production, and help shape both the product and the engineering organization.

This hands-on role reserves a roughly 60/40 backend-to-frontend split, with emphasis on scalable services, cloud infrastructure, and architecture

Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional software engineering with backend focus.
• Demonstrated experience designing and building scalable systems and cloud architectures.
• Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform: AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own scalable backend services and cloud infrastructure from the ground up.
• Make architectural decisions around distributed systems, APIs, data, infrastructure, and application scalability.
• Build cloud-native applications across AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Diagnose and troubleshoot complex technical issues across the application and infrastructure stack.
• Work across the full software development lifecycle, from architecture and development through deployment and production support.
• Collaborate directly with founders, product stakeholders, customers, and client engineering teams.
• Participate in technical discussions with customer engineering leaders and translate business requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Contribute to frontend development when needed, while maintaining a strong backend focus.
• Establish engineering practices, patterns, and standards that can scale with the company.
• Help shape the technical roadmap and make foundational decisions that will influence the product as the company grows.

Skills

Backend development

Distributed systems

Cloud architecture

AWS/Azure/GCP

Production ownership

Communication

Independent work

Client interaction

Job description

We’re partnering with an early-stage technology startup transforming the construction and architecture industry through software and AI. The company is building a technology platform designed to solve complex problems across the built environment, and they’re looking for a founding engineer who wants to have a meaningful role in shaping both the product and the engineering organization.

This is an opportunity to join early, work directly with the founding team, and take ownership of systems from the ground up.

The Role

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Engineer / Founding Engineer with a strong background in backend development, distributed systems, and cloud architecture.

This is a hands-on engineering role with roughly a 60/40 backend-to-frontend split. You’ll be responsible for designing and building scalable backend systems, making architectural decisions, troubleshooting production issues, and helping shape the technical direction of the company.

You’ll also work directly with customers and their technical teams, so you should be comfortable jumping on a call with a client’s engineering lead, explaining technical decisions, gathering requirements, and representing the company professionally.

You don’t need to be an ML specialist. The priority is strong software engineering and architecture fundamentals. Experience with AI/ML, LLMs, or RAG is a major plus, but not a requirement.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and own scalable backend services and cloud infrastructure from the ground up.
• Make architectural decisions around distributed systems, APIs, data, infrastructure, and application scalability.
• Build and maintain cloud-native applications across AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Diagnose and troubleshoot complex technical issues across the application and infrastructure stack.
• Work across the full software development lifecycle, from architecture and development through deployment and production support.
• Collaborate directly with founders, product stakeholders, customers, and client engineering teams.
• Participate in technical discussions with customer engineering leaders and translate business requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Contribute to frontend development when needed, while maintaining a strong backend focus.
• Establish engineering practices, patterns, and standards that can scale with the company.
• Help shape the technical roadmap and make foundational decisions that will influence the product as the company grows.

What We're Looking For

• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong emphasis on backend development.
• Demonstrated experience designing and building scalable systems and cloud architectures.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, system architecture, APIs, and backend engineering principles.
• Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform: AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Experience taking systems from 0 → 1 and owning them through production.
• Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills — you understand how to investigate when systems break rather than simply escalating problems.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Comfortable representing an early-stage company in conversations with customers and their engineering teams.
• Ability to operate independently in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment.

Nice to Have

• Experience as a founding engineer or early engineering hire at a startup.
• Experience building AI/ML-powered applications.
• Experience with LLMs, RAG, agentic systems, or other modern AI architectures.
• Experience working with vector databases, embeddings, model APIs, or AI application infrastructure.
• Experience in construction, architecture, engineering, real estate, or other AEC-related industries.
• Experience working directly with enterprise customers or technical stakeholders.

Why Join?

This is a chance to join a company at a genuinely early stage and have significant influence over what gets built and how it gets built. You’ll have ownership over core architecture, work directly with the founding team, interact with customers, and help establish the engineering foundation for a product with significant room to scale.

If you’re a backend-focused engineer who enjoys building from scratch, solving difficult technical problems, owning systems end-to-end, and having a direct impact on a growing company, this could be an excellent fit.