Founding Engineer (US) (up to $180k)

Dex; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Dex is seeking a founding engineer in San Francisco to build the core browser automation engine, on-device runtime, and encrypted infrastructure for enterprise identity workflows. You will work closely with customers to tailor secure automations and ship features rapidly.

You will directly engage with enterprise security teams, design robust distributed systems, and own significant portions of the platform from development to production, in a hands-on, fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• At least 1 year of professional experience shipping production software that real users depend on.
• Strong systems debugging skills and comfort with browser environments and automation tooling.
• Based in or willing to work in-person most days from the San Francisco office.
• Existing US work authorization; visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Responsibilities

• Build and optimize a core browser automation engine and on-device runtime designed to execute reliable tasks inside complex third-party web apps.
• Architect and maintain distributed, end-to-end encrypted task systems that run locally across diverse end-user operating systems and browser environments.
• Engage directly with customer security teams to diagnose workflow failures, validate fixes live, and turn customer friction into platform capabilities.
• Develop platform infrastructure, enterprise controls, and no-code workflow builders that let non-technical admins configure secure automations.
• Set architecture patterns and operational standards in an emerging domain where no established browser agent playbooks exist yet.

Skills

Production software

Customer interaction

Systems debugging

Browser automation

Distributed systems

In-person SF readiness

Tools

Playwright

Puppeteer

Selenium

Electron

Job description

This role is with one of Dex's trusted partner companies. We work closely with their teams to truly understand their culture, goals, and what they're looking for, so we can match you with the right opportunity and give you context about the role before you commit to a process.

Dex is an AI recruiter agent that helps you run your job search. Tell Dex your stack, seniority, and what you want to build. We will manage your applications and surface other opportunities that are a fit.

The role

Enterprise identity providers leave major blind spots: privileged service accounts, banking portals, and internal tools that traditional single sign-on cannot reach. This company solves that gap with an on-device browser agent and extension system that executes authenticated workflows directly inside end-user web applications. Backed by top-tier investors with multi-year runway, their platform already runs critical access and lifecycle automation daily for decacorn fintechs and public insurance institutions.

As a founding engineer in San Francisco, you will build across the full surface area, including the core browser automation engine, the on-device agent runtime, and end-to-end encrypted infrastructure. This is not an isolated seat where you pull pre-triaged tickets from a sprint board. You will meet enterprise customers directly, isolate their edge cases, architect the solution, and ship it to production within the week.

The work

• Build and optimize a core browser automation engine and on-device runtime designed to execute reliable tasks inside complex third-party web apps.
• Architect and maintain distributed, end-to-end encrypted task systems that run locally across diverse end-user operating systems and browser environments.
• Engage directly with customer security teams to diagnose workflow failures, validate fixes live, and turn customer friction into platform capabilities.
• Develop platform infrastructure, enterprise controls, and no-code workflow builders that let non-technical admins configure secure automations.
• Set architecture patterns and operational standards in an emerging domain where no established browser agent playbooks exist yet.

What You Bring

• At least 1 year of professional experience shipping production software that real users depend on, beyond prototypes or coursework.
• Strong systems debugging skills and comfort with messy browser environments, client-side runtimes, or automation tooling like Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium, or Electron.
• Genuine appetite for direct customer contact, taking total ownership from customer call to production deployment.
• Based in or willing to work in-person most days from the San Francisco office.
• Existing US work authorization; visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Why apply through Dex

Founding roles at early-stage security startups are hard to evaluate from the outside, especially when customer facing demands and technical scope vary wildly. Applying through Dex bypasses the cold queue, pairing you directly with the team while giving you an unvarnished technical brief beforehand. One profile matches you to this seat and similar high-conviction founding roles without repeated applications.