Founding Software Engineer

Harrison Clarke; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founding-level ownership

Significant equity upside

Exceptional earning potential

Job summary

Harrison Clarke is partnering with a rapidly evolving startup in San Francisco to build AI-driven technology from the ground up. You will shape architecture, infrastructure, and engineering direction while working directly with the founders.

This is a rare chance to influence product strategy, technology choices, and company trajectory in a high-speed, high-ownership environment. As one of the earliest engineers, you’ll own substantial components of the stack, establish standards, and help form

Job description

Package: Up to $350,000 + significant founding-level equity

My client is building something ambitious at the intersection of AI and next-generation technology. They're tackling a genuinely interesting problem in a space that's moving incredibly quickly, with the potential to build something that could have a major impact on how people and businesses operate.

They're backed, moving fast and deliberately keeping things under the radar. The team is small, the technical challenges are substantial, and the opportunity is unusually early. This isn't a role where you'll inherit someone else's architecture or spend years working on a tiny part of a product. You'll help build the foundations of the company, work directly with the founders and have the chance to shape both the technology and the direction of the business. For the right person, the upside is significant.

What you'll be doing

• Building from zero. You'll help design and build the core technology behind an ambitious new AI-driven product, making key decisions on architecture, infrastructure and engineering direction.
• Solving hard technical problems. You'll work on complex, open-ended challenges that require creative thinking, strong engineering fundamentals and a willingness to experiment.
• Turning ideas into reality. You'll work closely with the founders to take early concepts from whiteboard to working product, moving quickly from prototype to production.
• Owning the entire stack. You'll have the freedom to work across backend systems, infrastructure, APIs and product-facing engineering wherever you can make the biggest impact.
• Setting the technical direction. You'll establish the foundations, tools and engineering standards that will support the company as it scales.
• Shaping the team. As one of the earliest hires, you'll help define the engineering culture and play a key role in building the team around you.
• Thinking beyond the code. You'll contribute to product strategy, challenge assumptions and help decide what the company should build next.

Who will thrive here

• A seriously strong engineer who enjoys building ambitious technology from scratch
• Someone with exceptional technical curiosity who gets excited by difficult, open-ended problems
• A builder who can move between high-level system design and hands-on implementation without hesitation
• An engineer who values speed, ownership and first-principles thinking over process and bureaucracy
• Someone comfortable operating with incomplete information and making important decisions independently
• A technically ambitious individual who wants to help shape a company, not simply join an existing engineering team
• Experience building AI-powered products, developer tools or technically sophisticated platforms
• A background in early-stage startups or founding engineering teams
• Experience taking products from zero to one and scaling them beyond the initial prototype
• Strong systems, infrastructure, distributed systems or backend engineering fundamentals
• A track record of building interesting things outside the traditional scope of a job
• An interest in emerging technologies and the opportunity to work on something genuinely new

What's in it for you

• Founding-level ownership. You'll be one of the earliest engineers, with meaningful influence over the product, architecture and company direction.
• Significant equity upside. You'll join early enough to participate in the company's growth, with the potential for substantial long-term value creation if the business succeeds.
• Exceptional earning potential. A package of up to $350,000, alongside equity that reflects the importance of the role.
• A blank canvas. No legacy systems, layers of bureaucracy or years of technical debt. You'll help build things the right way from the beginning.
• Direct access to the founders. You'll work closely with the people driving the business, with real influence over strategic and technical decisions.
• Huge growth potential. If the company executes on its ambitions, you'll have the opportunity to grow alongside it, take on greater responsibility and potentially help build and lead the engineering organisation.
• The chance to do something different. An opportunity to work on ambitious technology in a fast-moving environment where the problems are hard, the expectations are high and the upside could be substantial.