Founding Engineer

TradeForm; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

TradeForm is building the first proactive AI workforce for direct procurement. As Founding Engineer, you will build the systems that let enterprise teams trust an agent with high-stakes procurement work.

You will structure millions of procurement records, own integrations with enterprise systems, ship workflows customers use daily, and help determine the product roadmap. You will own features end-to-end, design scalable backend architectures, and build secure, auditable agent workflows that

Qualifications

• Fluency in Python, TypeScript, Java, or C++ and modern backend frameworks.
• Strong computer science fundamentals and ownership mindset.
• Ability to design scalable backend systems, databases and distributed architectures.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship across frontend, backend, data infra, and deployment stack.
• Own features from initial customer conversation through deployment and iteration.
• Develop reliable agent workflows, evaluations, and AI/ML pipelines.
• Design data schemas for procurement, manufacturing, and ERP data.
• Build guardrails to make agent actions safe and auditable.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

Java

C++

Tools

Next.js

FastAPI

PostgreSQL

Job description

AI agents are changing how enterprise work gets done.

Direct procurement teams still operate across fragmented systems, spreadsheets, supplier emails, PDFs, and workflows that depend heavily on institutional knowledge.

TradeForm is building the first proactive AI workforce for direct procurement. Our platform unifies and enriches procurement data, then puts it to work through secure agents that execute complex workflows across sourcing, supplier management, and supply-chain risk.

As a Founding Engineer, you will build the systems that let enterprise teams trust an agent with high-stakes procurement work. You will structure millions of procurement records, own integrations with enterprise systems, ship workflows customers use daily, and help determine the product roadmap.

What You’ll Do

• Build and ship across our frontend, backend, data infrastructure, and deployment stack
• Own features from the initial customer conversation through deployment and iteration
• Develop reliable agent workflows, evaluations, and AI/ML pipelines
• Design data schemas for complex procurement, manufacturing, and ERP data
• Build harnesses and guardrails that make agent actions safe and auditable
• Establish engineering practices that will shape the future team

What We’re Looking For

• High ownership, low ego, and comfort with direct feedback
• Strong computer science fundamentals
• Fluency in at least one of Python, TypeScript, Java, or C++ and modern backend frameworks (Next.js, FastAPI, Postgres, or similar)
• Ability to work across frontend, backend, databases, APIs, and infrastructure
• Experience designing scalable backend systems, databases, and distributed architectures