Founding Software Engineer

Clera; United States; On-site; USD 165,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in startup

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Clera, a fast-growing insurtech startup backed by Y Combinator, is hiring a Founding Software Engineer to own the core platform powering its AI agents. You will design systems, orchestrate agent execution, and ship production code on a weekly cycle in a small team.

You will build reliability and eval platforms, collaborate with forward-deployed engineers, shape developer tooling and CI/CD, and own backend components end-to-end in a security-conscious, regulated environment.

Qualifications

• Proven TypeScript and SQL production experience.
• 4+ years software engineering; 3+ years owning a core platform.
• Hands-on AWS in production.
• Startup seed-to-scale ownership with measurable outcomes.
• Experience in regulated/security environments (fintech/insurtech).
• Backend expertise: REST APIs, PostgreSQL, vector DBs, Docker.
• Public artifact (GitHub/website) showing outside engineering interest.
• US work authorization; no visa sponsorship.

Responsibilities

• Own platform components end-to-end from evaluation to agent execution infrastructure.
• Build reliability systems: retries, circuit breakers, failover, observability, and canary deployments.
• Design and ship an eval platform that catches regressions before customers, with per-run evals and automated regression detection.
• Collaborate with forward-deployed engineers to rapidly spec, build, and ship solutions from customer pain points.
• Shape developer tooling, CI/CD workflows, and coding agent integrations to unlock team velocity.

Skills

TypeScript

SQL

Software engineering

AWS

Startup experience

Regulated environment

REST APIs

PostgreSQL

Docker

Vector databases

GCP

Open source/public artifact

Education

CS degree or equivalent

Tools

Docker

PostgreSQL

Job description

About the Role

A fast-growing, Y Combinator-backed insurtech startup (Seed stage) is hiring a Founding Software Engineer to take true end-to-end ownership of the core platform powering its AI agents - infrastructure already live with major insurance carriers and scaling rapidly. This is a high-agency, zero-hand-holding role on a small (sub-10-person) team where you design systems, orchestrate AI agents, and ship production code on a weekly cycle.

What You'll Do

• Own entire platform components end-to-end - from evaluation pipelines and model reliability to document parsing and agent execution infrastructure.
• Build and maintain reliability systems: retries, circuit breakers, failover, observability, and canary deployments.
• Design and ship an eval platform that catches regressions before customers do, including per-run evals and automated regression detection.
• Collaborate closely with forward-deployed engineers to rapidly spec, build, and ship solutions surfaced directly from customer pain points.
• Shape developer platform tooling, CI/CD workflows, and coding agent integrations to unlock team velocity.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves

• TypeScript and SQL as primary production languages - clearly evidenced on resume or GitHub.
• 4+ years of software engineering experience; 3+ years owning a core platform component end-to-end at a VC-backed startup with measurable business outcomes.
• Hands-on AWS (or GCP) experience in a production environment.
• Startup experience (Seed-Series B) with demonstrated end-to-end platform ownership - not just feature contributions.
• Experience in a regulated or security-sensitive environment (fintech, insurtech, or healthtech) where auditability and traceability were hard requirements.
• Proven backend expertise: REST APIs, PostgreSQL, vector databases, Docker, and system architecture.
• A public artifact (GitHub, personal site, or published technical content) showing genuine engineering interest outside day-to-day employment.
• US work authorization required - no visa sponsorship available.

Nice-to-haves

• Shipped AI/LLM agent infrastructure including tool orchestration, evaluation pipelines, or session lifecycle management.
• Previous product experience: PM internship, PM role, or product-focused engineering work.
• Experience with voice AI systems, insurance platforms, or fintech infrastructure.
• Founded a company or was an early engineer (first 10) with multi-year tenure.
• Technical degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary: $165,000 - $270,000 USD annually (commensurate with experience).

Early-stage equity in a well-funded, high-growth startup.

Location

This is an on-site role based in Los Angeles, CA. Candidates in New York City, NY or San Francisco, CA may also be considered. Relocation support available for strong candidates.