Founding Engineer, AI Platform

Socket.dev; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founding-stage equity

Direct access to founding team

Influence over product and engineering

Job summary

Socket.dev, a founding-stage enterprise AI company in San Francisco, is hiring a Founding Engineer, AI Platform to build the core platform from the ground up and own end-to-end platform work. You will shape architecture, deliver full-stack surfaces, and work closely with customers to iterate on product offerings.

You’ll lead platform primitives, from triggers and memory to observability and workflow execution, while influencing the roadmap, engineering culture, and best practices.

Qualifications

• 3–7 years of full-stack software engineering experience in AI-native or fast-moving product environments.
• Clear 0-to-1 experience as a founder, founding engineer, or early engineer at a venture-backed startup.
• Experience shipping AI-powered features into production; familiarity with LLM APIs, RAG, agent orchestration, tool calling, evaluations.

Responsibilities

• Build the core platform from the ground up and operate across product, infrastructure, agents, evaluations, and customer workflows.
• Lead reusable platform primitives including triggers, tools, approvals, memory, observability, and workflow execution.
• Own work from customer discovery through launch and iteration; build full-stack surfaces and backend systems.
• Work directly with customers and help shape the product roadmap, architecture, engineering practices, and culture.

Skills

Full-stack engineering

Autonomy

Product judgment

Customer-facing collaboration

Ambiguity tolerance

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

Tools

LLM APIs

RAG

Agent orchestration

Tool calling

Evaluations

Backend development

Job description

Our client is an early-stage enterprise AI company building an intelligent workspace that converts meetings, email, documents, chat, and operational systems into durable organizational memory, proactive agents, and customer-specific workflows. The company has raised a $10 million seed round, already serves large enterprise customers, and is led by seasoned technology and AI operators.

As a Founding Engineer, AI Platform, you will build the core platform from the ground up and operate across product, infrastructure, agents, evaluations, and customer workflows. You will lead reusable platform primitives including triggers, tools, approvals, memory, observability, and workflow execution; own work from customer discovery through launch and iteration; build full-stack product surfaces and backend systems; work directly with customers; and help shape the product roadmap, architecture, engineering practices, and culture.

3 to 7 years of full-stack software engineering experience in AI-native or fast-moving product environments. Clear 0-to-1 experience as a founder, founding engineer, or early engineer at a venture-backed startup. Strong backend engineering skills and the ability to own work across the full stack. Experience shipping AI-powered features into production and familiarity with LLM APIs, RAG, agent orchestration, tool calling, evaluations, or adjacent agent infrastructure. High autonomy, strong product judgment, comfort with ambiguity, and ability to speak directly with customers. Bachelor's degree in computer science or an equivalent technical degree. Ability to work from San Francisco approximately three days per week. Existing authorization to work in the United States without sponsorship. Base salary of $180,000 to $250,000 plus competitive founding-stage equity, with approximately 0.25 percent discussed as a reference point. Join a $10 million seed-stage company with real enterprise customers, direct access to the founding team, and meaningful influence over product, architecture, and engineering culture.