Founding Software Engineer (equity-only)

GreenSand; Northern (KY); Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

GreenSand is a startup seeking a Founding Engineer to design and scale AI-driven systems from day one. You will work directly with the founders, own significant parts of the product, architecture, and culture, and influence what to build.

You’ll collaborate across backend, cloud, and ML tooling, prototype APIs, and help recruit early team members. This is a high-conviction role with real ownership upside in a remote, full-time capacity.

Qualifications

• Expertise in AI/ML/LLM/NLP systems with ability to build AI/LLM solutions to analyze contracts with high accuracy and determinism.
• Around 5 years of professional software engineering experience; startup experience is a plus.
• Strong Python and modern backend development skills; production-grade software experience.
• Experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and cloud infrastructure.
• Hands-on with LLMs or agent frameworks; comfortable with ownership and uncertainty.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and scale core AI-driven systems and products.
• Collaborate with the founding team on product strategy and technical direction.
• Prototype and iterate on APIs and end-to-end applications.
• Establish engineering best practices, including testing, deployment, and CI/CD.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging AI/ML technologies into our stack.
• Wear multiple hats across backend, infra, ML, and customer-facing problem-solving.
• Help recruit and mentor early team members as we grow.

Skills

AI/ML/LLM/NLP systems

Python

Backend development

Cloud infrastructure

APIs

GCP

Ownership mindset

Tools

LLM frameworks

CI/CD

Job description

Location: Remote (U.S. based preferred) Type: Full-time, (part-time could be considered as well) Compensation: Lean cash base paired with significant founding-team equity, designed for high-conviction builders who want real ownership upside.

About Us

Inaccuracies (bias, hallucination, non-determinism, etc.) from AI models, stemming from flawed data, imperfect prompts, or misinterpretations, can cause significant harm and erode trust across many industries. The impact ranges from just not quite correct and inconvenience in less critical applications to serious financial losses, safety risks, legal liability, and discrimination in high-stakes fields like healthcare, finance, and autonomous vehicles. In an enterprise, a minor error/deviation at each step in a multi-step agentic workflow can lead to a huge drift from the expected final outcome.

We are an AI startup assembling a world-class team to shape the future of robust AI. We are researching, experimenting, and developing practical solutions to make AI applications robust. Currently, we are a small team of experienced engineers and researchers passionate about making AI usable in mission critical applications. If the problem resonates with you, and you want to be part of the team, join us.

As a Founding Engineer, you'll work directly with the founders, play a pivotal role in defining our technology, and have significant ownership of the product, architecture, and culture from the ground up. You will not only build, but will also participate in the decision making of what to build. This is an opportunity for exceptional software engineers who want to build robust AI systems/platform/applications from 0 to 1, and have an appetite for some risk.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and scale core AI-driven systems and products.
• Collaborate with the founding team on product strategy and technical direction.
• Rapidly prototype and iterate on APIs and end-to-end applications.
• Establish engineering best practices, including testing, deployment, and CI/CD.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging AI/ML technologies into our stack.
• Wear multiple hats: full-stack engineering, infrastructure, ML engineering, and occasional customer-facing problem-solving.
• Help recruit and mentor early team members as we grow.

What We're Looking For

• A must: Expertise in AI/ML/LLM/NLP systems, in particular an ability to build AI/LLM systems to efficiently analyze large (contract) documents for various kinds of clauses (e.g. entitlements, obligations, risks), and structured fields with 95%+ accuracy, completeness, and determinism.
• ~5 years of professional software engineering experience (startup experience a plus).
• Strong background in Python and modern backend development.
• Experience building and shipping production-grade software (ideally involving AI/ML systems).
• Comfortable across the stack (backend, cloud infrastructure, APIs, some frontend if needed).
• Experience in using Google Cloud Platform (GCP) extensively.
• Deep curiosity and hands-on experience with LLMs and/or agent frameworks.
• Ability to thrive in uncertainty and take ownership.
• Capable of architecting and implementing complex software systems with optimal efficiency.
• A collaborative mindset and good communication skills.

Nice to Have

• Prior startup or small-team experience.
• Contributions to open-source AI/ML projects.
• Experience with DevOps.
• Familiarity with modern frontend frameworks (React, Next.js).
• Familiarity with ML frameworks (PyTorch/TensorFlow).

What We Offer

• Lean cash base paired with significant founding-team equity.
• Direct influence over technical, product, and cultural decisions.
• Opportunity to shape a company from day one.
• Fast-paced, collaborative environment with significant autonomy.
• Access to advisors, investors, and industry networks in AI.

Why Join Us?

This is not just another engineering role. As a Founding Engineer, you'll be a builder, owner, and decision-maker. You'll shape not only our product but also the DNA of the company. If you want to have an outsized impact in an early-stage AI venture, we'd love to talk.