Founding Engineer – AI Platform with Equity & Growth

Motion Recruitment; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity participation

Bonus eligible

Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance

Paid Vacation Time

Equity / Stock Options

Leadership Growth Opportunities

Job summary

Motion Recruitment is seeking a Founding Engineer for a venture-backed Chicago startup. Hybrid role in River North, focusing on building an AI-powered platform for the lower middle market finance sector.

You will shape architecture, scale the platform, and help build the engineering organization from day one. The ideal candidate has startup leadership experience, a track record of taking products to production, and comfort solving ambiguous problems.

Qualifications

• Experience founding a startup or leading engineering in early-stage company.
• Track record taking products from prototype to production.
• Strong software engineering background with modern web tech.
• Experience managing engineers and delivery processes.
• Hands-on Python and/or TypeScript development.

Responsibilities

• Hands-on development across backend and frontend as per tech breakdown.
• Lead architecture, engineering culture, and hiring strategy from day one.
• Collaborate with founder and stakeholders to shape roadmap.

Skills

Startup leadership

Product-to-production

Strong software engineering

Team management

Python

TypeScript

Communication

Ambiguity handling

Tools

Python

TypeScript

React

FastAPI

Postgres

Cloud infrastructure

DevOps

Job description

Motion Recruitment is seeking a Founding Engineer for a venture-backed Chicago startup. Hybrid role in River North, focusing on building an AI-powered platform for the lower middle market finance sector.

You will shape architecture, scale the platform, and help build the engineering organization from day one. The ideal candidate has startup leadership experience, a track record of taking products to production, and comfort solving ambiguous problems.