Founding Web Platform Engineer

Netic; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A cutting-edge technology company in San Francisco seeks a Founding Platform Engineer to own and design the semantic layer for their AI-driven platform. This role involves building scalable systems that support dynamic workflows and collaborating with product teams. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of experience in distributed systems and strong expertise in data architectures. This in-person position offers a unique opportunity to make a foundational impact in an innovative environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years building and operating distributed systems with experience in owning a platform.
• Deep understanding of data warehouses and transactional databases.
• Ability to design schemas and semantic models that support rapid iteration.
• Experience with observability, migrations, and running high-uptime systems.
• Responsibility for long-term outcomes and effective execution.

Responsibilities

• Own the semantic layer powering the system-of-record.
• Build primitives and APIs for internal product teams.
• Partner closely with teams to design intuitive systems.
• Architect systems across various data topologies.
• Define the long-term platform architecture.

Skills

Platform & Systems Experience

Strong Data Systems Background

Semantic & Abstraction Thinking

Operational Rigor

Ownership Mentality

Job description

Netic is the AI revenue engine for essential services who are the backbone of the American economy.

With $43M in funding from Founders Fund, Greylock, Hanabi, and Dylan Field who led our Series B, we helped our customers book hundreds of thousands of jobs across services industries in North America. There are now companies operating entirely AI-first on Netic.

You’ll join our team with relentless builders from Scale, Databricks, HRT, Meta, MIT, Stanford, and Harvard in bringing frontier AI to the physical economy, where the problems are hard, the data is complex, and the impact is immediate and tangible.

As a Founding Platform Engineer, you will own the semantic layer that powers our system of record and enables compounding products across the company. What makes this role uniquely rare at Netic is the scope and shape of the platform we are building. From day one, our system of record has to work across industries, geographies, and regulatory environments. That requires a platform that is highly customizable to support different workflows and business rules, while still being tractable enough that engineers can understand, debug, and operate it in production.

This platform directly determines how dynamic workflows are built, packaged, and delivered to customers. The abstractions you create will influence how quickly we can launch new products, expand into new verticals, and respond to real world edge cases without sacrificing reliability. If you are excited to design foundational systems where flexibility, correctness, and developer ergonomics all matter, this is an opportunity to build a durable, company defining platform.

What You’ll Do

• Build the Semantic Layer Design and own the semantic layer that powers our system-of-record flywheel. This layer is the foundation for how data, state, and meaning flow through the company, enabling compounding AI products across teams.

• Create Internal Platforms with Leverage Build primitives, abstractions, and APIs that product teams use as building blocks. Your success is measured by how easily other engineers can ship powerful AI-driven features on top of your work.

• Treat Product Teams as Customers Partner closely with internal product and engineering teams to understand their needs, eliminate friction, and design systems that are intuitive, well-documented, and hard to misuse.

• Architect for Multiple Data & Request Topologies Design systems that span data warehouses, OLTP databases, streaming systems, and vector stores. Make intentional tradeoffs based on latency, throughput, consistency, and access patterns.

• Set Platform Direction Work with leadership to define the long-term platform architecture, including build-vs-buy decisions, evolution of the semantic layer, and how the system scales as product surface area grows.

What You’ll Bring

• Platform & Systems Experience 5+ years building and operating distributed systems, ideally with experience owning a platform or core abstraction used by multiple teams.

• Strong Data Systems Background Deep understanding of data warehouses, transactional databases, and other storage systems, including how to model data for different access patterns and workloads.

• Semantic & Abstraction Thinking Ability to design schemas, contracts, and semantic models that remain stable over time while supporting rapid product iteration.

• Operational Rigor Experience with observability, migrations, backfills, incident response, and running high-uptime systems that are hard to unwind once in production.

• Ownership Mentality You take responsibility for long-term outcomes, not just shipping code. You think in terms of flywheels, leverage, and second-order effects.

We believe fulfillment comes from producing your best work with the smartest people together in one room. All roles are in person, in SF (our office is in Jackson Square). What brings us together is our commitment to:

• Live to build

• Run through walls and win

• Obsess over customers in each line of code

• Lose sleep over the "almost perfect"

• Show internal locus of control

• Prioritize finesse: refinement of first principles thinking, execution, and craftsmanship

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.