Founding Engineer

Clera Labs, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity (0.5%–1.5%)

On-site in San Francisco

Job summary

Clera Labs, Inc. is building AI tools for industrial ingredient manufacturers. Join the founding engineering team to work across backend, frontend, AI agents, and infrastructure, shipping features end-to-end.

You will own products from problem discovery through launch, iterating based on customer feedback and real-world usage. Expect hands-on coding in a fast-moving startup environment, with a focus on manufacturing and supply chain domain challenges.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience with hands-on coding in production
• Experience as founder/co-founder/CTO/VP of Engineering or engineering leader at an early-stage startup and interest in returning to IC role
• End-to-end ownership of products or major features used by real customers from 0 to 1
• Strong full-stack capabilities from backend services to user interface
• Experience building backend services that process real-world data and designing relational databases (PostgreSQL)
• Production experience with AI/LLMs, agents, search, RAG, or automation; document processing and unstructured data extraction
• Familiarity with Kotlin and Spring Boot or another JVM backend, React and Next.js, cloud platforms (GCP) and production model integrations
• Interest in fast-moving product development and solving problems in manufacturing, supply chain or established industries

Responsibilities

• Build backend systems that ingest and process documents from customer systems and inboxes
• Develop production AI agents that complete complex multi-page compliance and food safety documents
• Own products end to end from discovery to architecture, launch, and iteration
• Ship quickly, gather user feedback, and improve products based on real-world use

Skills

Full-stack development

PostgreSQL databases

Kotlin/Spring Boot

React/Next.js

Cloud platforms (GCP)

AI/LLMs/Agents

End-to-end product ownership

Startup/early-stage experience

Tools

PostgreSQL

Spring Boot

React

Next.js

GCP

Job description

About the Role

Join the founding engineering team at an early-stage B2B SaaS company building AI tools for industrial ingredient manufacturers. This hands-on role spans product engineering, backend systems, frontend experiences, infrastructure, and AI agents that help customers process complex operational documents.

What You'll Do

• Build backend systems that ingest and process documents from customer business systems and inboxes.
• Develop production AI agents that complete complex, multi-page compliance and food safety documents.
• Own products end to end, from customer discovery and problem definition through architecture, launch, and iteration.
• Ship quickly, gather feedback from real users, and improve products based on how they work in practice.

What We're Looking For

• At least 4 years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of hands-on production coding.
• Previous experience as a founder, co-founder, CTO, VP of Engineering, or engineering leader at an early-stage startup, and interest in returning to an individual contributor role.
• End-to-end ownership of products or major features used by real customers, including experience taking products from 0 to 1.
• Strong full-stack skills, including the ability to take a feature from backend service through to the user interface.
• Experience building backend services that process real-world data and designing relational databases such as Postgres.
• Production experience with AI, LLMs, agents, search, RAG, or automation; document processing and unstructured data extraction are relevant.
• Familiarity with Kotlin and Spring Boot or another JVM backend, React and Next.js, cloud platforms such as GCP, and production model integrations is helpful. Experience with other stacks is welcome.
• Interest in fast-moving product development and solving problems in manufacturing, supply chain, or other established industries.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary is $180,000 to $250,000 annually, plus 0.5% to 1.5% equity. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

This is a fully on-site role in San Francisco, California.