Founding Engineer (PhD)

Mentor Talent Acquisition; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Mentor Talent Acquisition is seeking a Founding Software Engineer to build products from the ground up and turn early stage research ideas into working systems. You'll contribute to product development, co-author papers submitted to leading scientific conferences and advance our open-source efforts.

This is a true owner-operator position, shaping a new applied AI research lab from its earliest days, with substantial equity upside to match the responsibility.

Qualifications

• PhD candidate or holder; strong research background.
• Proven builder experience from hackathons, side projects, or shipped products.
• Strong ideation skills and ability to propose multiple features.
• Interest in AI/ML and database systems; ability to work with PhD researchers.
• Desire to own features from concept to deployment.

Responsibilities

• Build products from the ground up turning research ideas into working systems.
• Contribute to papers submitted to leading scientific conferences and help drive open-source efforts.
• Collaborate with PhD researchers and product teams on new ideas.
• Own features end-to-end from conception to deployment.

Skills

Builder mindset

Idea generation

End-to-end ownership

Collaboration with PhD researchers

AI/ML & database systems interest

Education

PhD degree or in progress

Job description

We're a different kind of AI lab. Our research sits at the crossroads of database systems and interoperability, and it's shaped by real problems our enterprise partners bring to us.

We love work that's hard, meaningful and genuinely enjoyable at once. The best days here start with a tough problem, a whiteboard and a pile of code and experiments, and end with pizza boxes on the table and a solution finally cracked. We're builders at heart, drawn to problems nobody's solved yet and always looking past the immediate task toward what's next.

About the Role

We're hiring a Founding Software Engineer to build products from the ground up and turn early stage research ideas into working systems. You'll contribute to product development, co-author papers submitted to leading scientific conferences and help drive our open-source efforts.

This is a true owner-operator position. You'll help shape a new type of applied AI research lab from its earliest days, with substantial equity upside to match the responsibility.

People who:

• Have an underway PhD or a PhD degree. We're a research lab, and every technical team member authors papers;
• Have real builder experience, whether through hackathons, side projects or products shipped to real users (bonus points for scale);
• Can't stop generating ideas. Ask them to build one feature and they'll come back with three more they think should exist too;
• Want to work shoulder to shoulder with PhD researchers on new ideas in AI, ML and database systems;
• Care about owning what they build from start to finish.

Who We Are

• Moving fast: pre-seed funding closed, partnerships with leading universities in place and a major enterprise client signed, all within a few months;
• Based out of two top-tier campuses;
• Led by a technical founder with a PhD in computer science from a top program;
• Committed to publishing at major scientific venues several times a year, with every technical team member credited as an author.