Founding Engineer, AI/ML

CLERA; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founding-hire equity

Visa sponsorship

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Clera Labs, Inc. is seeking a founding engineer to own the AI/ML systems for recommendations, ranking, and retrieval. You will build and ship LLM-powered candidate-to-role matching and turn product goals into rapid, production-ready features.

You will architect and maintain production data pipelines and services and collaborate with leadership to deliver end-to-end product systems. This is an on-site role in San Francisco with relocation support and visa sponsorship available.

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of software engineering experience shipping production features.
• Applied ML engineering experience with production recommendation, ranking, or matching systems.
• Experience shipping LLM-powered features using LLM APIs and ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Strong production engineering skills in TypeScript or Python with data pipelines and services.
• Evidence of strong technical achievement through education, open-source work, or personal projects.

Responsibilities

• Own the AI/ML systems for recommendations, ranking, and retrieval.
• Build and improve LLM-powered candidate-to-role matching.
• Turn product goals into working features and ship them at a rapid cadence.
• Architect and maintain production data pipelines and services that support models.
• Work directly with leadership to deliver product systems end to end.

Skills

Software engineering

Applied ML engineering

Python

TypeScript

LLM APIs

Data pipelines

React

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Supabase

Prisma

Job description

About the Role

Build the intelligence layer for an AI-powered recruiting marketplace, including the systems that match candidates with relevant roles. As a founding engineer, you will take ownership of recommendation, ranking, retrieval, and LLM-powered matching from early design through production.

What You'll Do

• Own the AI/ML systems for recommendations, ranking, and retrieval.

• Build and improve LLM-powered candidate-to-role matching.

• Turn product goals into working features and ship them at a rapid cadence.

• Architect and maintain the production data pipelines and services that support models.

• Work directly with company leadership to deliver product systems end to end.

What We're Looking For

• Two to five years of software engineering experience building and shipping production product features.

• Applied ML engineering experience at a product company or startup, including production recommendation, ranking, or matching systems.

• Experience shipping LLM-powered features using LLM APIs, as well as hands-on work with PyTorch, TensorFlow, or equivalent ML frameworks.

• Strong production engineering skills in TypeScript or Python, with experience maintaining data pipelines and services.

• Strong computer science fundamentals and comfort with fast-paced, iterative startup work.

• React experience is useful, as are Supabase, Prisma, Typesense or similar search infrastructure, embeddings, vector search, and workflow automation tools.

• Evidence of strong technical achievement through education, open-source work, or personal projects.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary is $130,000 to $170,000 annually, plus founding-hire equity. Visa sponsorship is available.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California. The role requires working in person six days per week. Relocation assistance is available.