Founding Engineer

Alpha Associates Recruitment; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity 0.5–1%

Job summary

Alpha Associates Recruitment in San Francisco is seeking a backend engineer to join as the third engineer at a YC-backed startup building the next generation of AI-powered developer tools. You will own core backend systems within 2–3 months and shape the system architecture.

You will build infrastructure for coding-agent sessions, including sandboxes, AI gateways and orchestration, and ship features directly to customers, gathering feedback to iterate quickly.

Qualifications

• 3–7 years of engineering experience; 5+ preferred.
• Experience at a fast-growing Seed or Series A startup.
• Strong backend and distributed-systems fundamentals; production systems built from scratch.
• Daily user of coding agents; experience in agent infrastructure, sandboxes or AI gateways.
• Hands-on with AWS, containers, networking, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, TypeScript or Python.
• High ownership, strong technical judgement and a track record of shipping quickly.

Responsibilities

• Become the third engineer and take ownership of core backend systems within 2–3 months.
• Build infrastructure for coding-agent sessions, including sandboxes, AI gateways and orchestration.
• Ship directly to customers, gather feedback and iterate within days.
• Make key technical decisions and help shape the engineering culture from an early stage.

Skills

Backend systems

Distributed systems

AWS

Containers

PostgreSQL

ClickHouse

TypeScript

Python

Startup experience

Ownership

Tools

Docker

Job description

San Francisco | $200k–$250k + 0.5–1% equity | Seed stage

Join a fast-moving YC-backed startup building the next generation of AI-powered developer tools.

The platform tests how coding agents like Claude Code, Codex and Cursor interact with developer tools, helping companies understand what works, identify friction and optimise their products for AI-driven development.

The opportunity

• Become the third engineer and take ownership of core backend systems within 2–3 months.
• Build infrastructure for coding-agent sessions, including sandboxes, AI gateways and orchestration.
• Ship directly to customers, gather feedback and iterate within days.
• Make key technical decisions and help shape the engineering culture from an early stage.

What they’re looking for

• 3+ years of engineering experience (5+ preferred).
• Experience at a fast-growing Seed or Series A startup, ideally in your most recent role.
• Strong backend and distributed-systems fundamentals, with production systems built from scratch.
• Daily user of coding agents, with experience in agent infrastructure, sandboxes or AI gateways a major plus.
• Hands-on experience with AWS, containers, networking, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, TypeScript or Python.
• High ownership, strong technical judgement and a track record of shipping quickly.

The details

• Stage: Seed | YC-backed
• Experience: 3–7 years
• Visa: Must be authorised to work in the US; no new sponsorship.

Ideal for an ambitious engineer who wants genuine ownership, moves quickly and thrives in a small team where execution matters.