Founding Engineer

Lightsage, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Lightsage, Inc. is seeking a Founding Engineer in San Francisco to design, build, and scale core infrastructure powering agent-led growth for developer tools and platforms.

You will work with the founders to define technical architecture, implement new features, and create benchmarks and analytics that measure agent interactions with APIs, CLIs, and MCPs. The role includes writing production code, data pipelines, dashboards, and customer collaboration to ship end-to-end solutions from prototype

Qualifications

• Translate loosely defined customer or product problems into shipped solutions.
• Startup founder or early-stage startup operator experience is a plus.
• Strong written communication and ability to explain technical decisions clearly.
• Experience with Next.js, FastAPI, Supabase, Microsoft Azure.

Responsibilities

• Write high-quality production code.
• Build data pipelines and dashboards.
• Integrate with third-party tools and services.
• Experiment with agent frameworks and AI coding systems.
• Collaborate with customers to understand needs and ship end-to-end solutions from prototype to production.

Skills

Startup experience

Strong written communication

Technical decision communication

Problem solving

Tools

Next.js

FastAPI

Supabase

Microsoft Azure

Job description

Company Description

Lightsage builds infrastructure for the emerging agent economy, helping organizations track, benchmark, and improve how coding agents discover and use their APIs, CLIs, and MCP integrations. The platform is used by enterprises and high-growth startups to become the default tools recommended by software agents. Lightsage focuses on agent experience and measurable impact on developer and product adoption, with more information available at lightsage.com. The team also created DevToolArena.com, a public benchmark that ranks developer tools across areas like authentication, inference, and voice using Claude Code and Codex. Joining Lightsage offers the opportunity to shape how agent-led growth and developer tooling evolve in a rapidly changing ecosystem.

Role Description

As a Founding Engineer at Lightsage, you will design, build, and scale core infrastructure and products that power agent-led growth for developer tools and platforms. You will work closely with the founders to define technical architecture, implement new features, and create benchmarks and analytics that measure how agents interact with APIs, CLIs, and MCPs. Your day-to-day will include writing high-quality production code, building data pipelines and dashboards, integrating with third-party tools, and experimenting with agent frameworks and AI coding systems. You will collaborate directly with customers to understand their needs, refine product requirements, and ship end-to-end solutions from prototype to production.

Requirements

• Able to take a loosely defined customer or product problem and drive it to a working shipped solution
• Prior founder or early-stage startup operator experience is a plus
• Strong written communication and ability to explain technical decisions clearly
• Experience working with Next.js, FastAPI, Supabase, Microsoft Azure

This is a full-time, on-site role based in San Francisco, CA, with significant ownership, autonomy, and impact on the company's technical direction.