Founding Engineer ($3M pre-seed)

Clera; Houston (TX); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful equity

Flexible working environment

Support with visa processes

Job summary

Clera is seeking an exceptional engineer to join our founding team as engineer #4 in Houston. This role involves daily production of features and owning product areas from concept to deployment. You’ll work on automating complex workflows with AI technologies using a powerful tech stack that includes TypeScript and React.

This fast-paced environment offers the opportunity for significant ownership and equity in a rapidly scaling startup, with a collaborative setup in San Francisco. Ideal candidates have strong coding and AI experience, combined with a resourceful startup mindset.

Qualifications

• Very strong software engineering background with TypeScript and React.
• Strong practical experience with AI technologies.
• Startup mindset with high agency and resourcefulness.

Responsibilities

• Ship features to production daily and own product areas.
• Automate complex workflows with agentic systems.
• Engage with customers for feedback and iteration.

Skills

Software engineering background in TypeScript

Experience with React

Practical experience with AI

Familiarity with LLM APIs

Tools

Cursor

Supabase

Prisma

Typesense

Trigger.dev

Job description

Overview

We\'re building the future of recruiting with AI – and we need an exceptional engineer to join our founding team in our San Francisco hackerhouse.

We just raised a $3M pre-seed from top-tier investors and are looking for someone to be one of our first engineering hires. This is the real deal: meaningful equity, direct impact on product direction, and the chance to build something massive in a $600B industry ripe for disruption.

What We\'re Building: Clera is reimagining how top talent finds their dream jobs. We\'re already working with leading VC-backed startups like Mintlify, Luminai, and Windsurf – automating the entire headhunting process end-to-end with AI agents. Thousands of talents engage with Clera every week. We\'ve helped many land roles at companies they\'re genuinely excited about. Traditional recruiting is broken – we\'re fixing it with AI-first automation that delivers better outcomes for both candidates and companies. We\'re at the perfect inflection point: early enough that you\'ll have massive ownership and impact, but far enough that we have a working product, paying customers, and strong traction.

The Role

You\'ll be engineer #4 on the founding team, working directly with our CTO and the other founding engineers. You\'ll ship features to production daily and own entire product areas from concept to deployment.

We\'re building fully agentic systems that automate complex workflows. It\'s technically challenging, fast-paced, and high-impact.

Your Experience

• Very strong software engineering background: Experience in TypeScript and React
• Strong practical experience working with AI: We work 24/7 in Cursor – ideally you have experience coding with AI. Bonus if you have an experience working with LLM APIs
• Startup mindset - high agency, resourceful, and obsessed with creating value

Who You Are

• Take full ownership of projects, from concept to deployment and do whatever it takes to get the job done.
• Write code fast and scrap it even faster, but know when to transition to building for scale and quality.
• Enjoy talking to customers and iterating based on feedback.
• Are willing to work hard, to create something new with a lot of impact, changing how millions of talents find their jobs in the future.

Tech Stack: TypeScript, React, Cursor, Supabase, Prisma, Typesense, LLM APIs, Trigger.dev

The SF Hackerhouse Setup

We\'re living and building together in SF. Zero commute, 10× faster feedback loops, constant collaboration. It\'s intense, but it\'s also incredibly productive and fun. You\'ll be surrounded by A-players who are all-in on building something great.

Why Join Now

• Be engineer #4 – your decisions will shape the entire product
• True ownership, no micromanagement, shipping to production every day
• Experienced founders and a team of A Players
• Meaningful equity in a fast-growing startup
• Join before we scale 10-100×
• We can support with visa processes

Compensation

Competitive salary + significant equity

If you\'re the kind of engineer who wants to build fast, own outcomes, and create something that matters – let\'s talk.