Founding Software Engineer

Actual AI; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Large founding-engineer equity

Relocation assistance

Brand-new hardware

Full benefits

Unlimited AI-tooling budget

Job summary

Actual AI is hiring founding engineers to build AI-powered software tooling for modern engineering teams. You will design an Integration SDK and production-grade adapters for GitHub Enterprise, GitLab CE, Jira, Slack and more.

Expect work on Kubernetes, cloud SaaS, and air-gapped on-prem deployments. You should have 4+ years building backend APIs or event pipelines in TS/Go/Rust/Python, plus comfort with OAuth2, webhooks, and rate limiting.

Qualifications

• Shipped a GitHub or Jira integration in production.
• 4+ years building backend APIs or event pipelines in TS/Go/Rust/Python.
• Experience with OAuth2, webhooks, and PATs.
• Can containerize services and debug in Kubernetes.
• Focus on observability, reliability, and developer experience.

Responsibilities

• Be an AI-first engineer building AI systems that build the systems.
• Design and own an Integration SDK to speed up connectors.
• Build adapters for GitHub Enterprise, GitLab CE, Jira, Slack.
• Shape event streams and data models for real-time reasoning.
• Operate services on Kubernetes in cloud and air-gapped on-prem installs.
• Collaborate with founders and customers; ship to production quickly.
• Dogfood the engineering manager agent and contribute to its design.

Skills

Backend APIs

Event pipelines

TypeScript

Go

Rust

Python

OAuth2

PATs

Webhooks

Rate limiting

Kubernetes

Docker

Observability

Reliability

DX (developer experience)

GitHub integration

Jira integration

GitHub Enterprise

GitLab CE

Slack integrations

Tools

GitHub Enterprise

GitLab CE

Jira

Slack

Kubernetes

Docker

Job description

About Actual AI

The biggest barriers to AI adoption in software engineering are the friction of human context switching and the opacity of context for AI agents. Actual AI is the glue that enables the modern software‑engineering team. Already serving Fortune 20 customers, we're hiring founding engineers who want to change how software gets built - forever.

Why we need you

Our foundation is analyzing code, issues, PRs, and every other work artifact wherever they live. To keep pace with customers we must add new data sources without sacrificing scalability, reliability, or our ability to deploy in‑VPC and on‑premises. You’ll architect the framework to make this possible.

What you’ll do

• Be an AI-first engineer from day 1. You shouldn’t just be building systems, you should be building AI systems that build the systems.
• Design & own an Integration SDK that turns “write a new connector” into copy‑paste‑run.
• Build and maintain production‑ready adapters for GitHub Enterprise, GitLab CE, Jira, Slack—and whatever comes next.
• Shape event streams & data models so our AI agents can reason over code‑workflow events in real time.
• Ship and operate your services on Kubernetes (Helm) in both cloud SaaS and air‑gapped on‑prem installs.
• Work shoulder‑to‑shoulder with founders and customers; your code hits production in days, not weeks.
• Dogfood our engineering manager agent and be highly opinionated about its design.

You might be a great fit if you

• Have shipped a GitHub or Jira integration in production.
• Bring 4+ years building backend APIs or event pipelines in TypeScript/Go/Rust/Python.
• Speak OAuth2, PATs, webhooks, and rate‑limit back‑off fluently.
• Can containerise a service and debug it in k8s in your sleep.
• Obsess over observability, reliability, and elegant developer experience.
• Bonus points: You’ve built at a fast growing startup and dealt with growing pains first hand.
• Bonus points: air‑gapped/on‑prem expertise, open‑source SDK work, relentless love of dev‑tools.
• Extreme bonus points: You’re already day dreaming about what you can accomplish with an unlimited AI tooling budget.

Compensation & perks

• $140‑$180k salary
• Large founding‑engineer equity
• Full benefits
• Relocation assistance
• Brand‑new hardware
• Truly unlimited AI‑tooling budget (seriously)

Hiring process at a glance

Incredibly simple and transparent. Absolutely no leetcode. Start with founder chats. Follow with a 60‑min architecture deep dive. Then, a paid on‑site day. Wrap up with references & offer.

This position is fully on‑site Monday‑Friday in Seattle, WA (we do offer relocation assistance).