Founding Engineering Lead

AnswerThis; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

AnswerThis in San Francisco is seeking a senior engineer who has built AI agent systems in production and led teams at startups. You will own the technical architecture and product velocity end to end, working directly with enterprise customers to translate problems into deployed solutions.

You will scale the engineering function as the business grows, balancing rapid iteration with reliability, observability, and high-quality software.

Qualifications

• Senior engineer who has built AI agent systems in production and led teams at startups.
• You will own the technical architecture and product velocity end to end, from customer problem to deployed solution.
• You will build the engineering team over time.

Responsibilities

• Architecture and execution across Next.js, Python/FastAPI, retrieval, agents, and production infrastructure
• Fast product iteration with researchers and enterprise customers
• Reliability, quality, and observability for high-stakes scientific workflows
• The engineering culture and team we build next

Skills

AI agent systems

Production deployment

Team leadership

Architecture design

Next.js

Python

FastAPI

Tools

FastAPI

Job description

AnswerThis is building the research workspace for scientific knowledge inside enterprises. Our agents search, synthesize, and draft evidence-based research autonomously. More than 200,000 researchers use the platform across universities and Fortune 500 companies. We’re YC-backed, growing fast, and small on purpose.

What we’re solving

Trillions of dollars flow into global R&D every year. Researchers still spend enormous amounts of time manually finding papers, writing literature reviews, and assembling evidence packages. This work decides whether new drugs and medical devices reach patients. We’re turning it into a living, compounding system.

Who we’re looking for

A senior engineer who has built AI agent systems in production and led teams at startups. You have shipped under uncertainty, without perfect specs, on timelines that did not make sense on paper.

You will own the technical architecture and product velocity end to end, from customer problem to deployed solution. You will work directly with enterprise customers, make hard scope calls with limited information, and measure success by business impact.

You will build the engineering team over time. You know what works at three engineers breaks at ten, and you want to design that transition.

What you’ll own

• Architecture and execution across Next.js, Python/FastAPI, retrieval, agents, and production infrastructure
• Fast product iteration with researchers and enterprise customers
• Reliability, quality, and observability for high-stakes scientific workflows
• The engineering culture and team we build next

Interview process

• 20-minute culture screen
• One-hour technical deep dive
• Take-home
• Two-week paid trial

Compensation

$170,000–$240,000+ base with 0.2%–0.5% equity.

This role is in person in San Francisco. If you have only operated inside large engineering organizations with established processes, or optimize for elegance over business impact, this is not the right fit.