Harness Engineer

Scion Staffing, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Direct impact on product

Work with founding team

Job summary

Scion Staffing, Inc. is actively seeking a Founding Software Engineer – AI-Powered Creative Technology (Harness Engineer) for an innovative SF-based company.

This full-time, onsite role pairs with the founding team to shape architecture, optimize pipelines, and deliver production-grade AI-enabled video tools. You will own cross‑functional development across frontend, backend, and infrastructure, building autonomous workflows with AI agents to identify issues, drive improvements, and reduce

Qualifications

• Experience building automated engineering systems, AI agents, or intelligent workflows beyond traditional debugging.
• Strong full-stack development across interfaces, backend, APIs, and infrastructure.
• Experience integrating AI models, open-source tech, or agent-based systems into software products.
• Proven track record shipping complex software in early-stage or product-focused teams.
• Strong problem‑solving skills and ability to improve interconnected systems.
• High initiative and ownership in fast-paced development environments.
• Genuine interest in AI-driven creative applications and high-quality UX.
• Collaborative, low-ego approach and willingness to iterate.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end product development across frontend, backend, and infrastructure with the founding team.
• Build autonomous engineering workflows using feedback, telemetry, and AI agents to improve reliability.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging AI models and open‑source tools to expand product capabilities.
• Optimize video generation pipelines to improve speed and quality while reducing costs.
• Collaborate with ML specialists to develop lightweight models for creative interpretation and QA.
• Identify bottlenecks, prototype solutions, and implement scalable improvements in performance.

Skills

Full-stack development

AI integration

Automation workflows

Systems design

Open-source tooling

Tools

Open-source tools

AI frameworks

Cloud platforms

Job description

Scion Technology has been engaged to conduct a search for an experienced Founding Software Engineer – AI-Powered Creative Technology (Harness Engineer) for our client, an innovative technology company developing next-generation tools for video creation! This is a full‑time, direct hire position based onsite in San Francisco.

POSITION OVERVIEW

Seeking a versatile software engineer to take ownership of a core product while helping shape its technical direction and future capabilities. Work closely with the founding team to improve product performance, enhance the end‑user experience, optimize operating costs, and develop intelligent systems that continuously improve software quality. The ideal candidate combines broad full‑stack development experience with specialized expertise in AI‑enabled engineering workflows. Rather than simply resolving technical issues as they arise, this person will build automated processes that identify problems, evaluate solutions, and drive ongoing improvements. This role is best suited for an exceptional individual contributor who enjoys solving complex problems, experimenting with emerging technologies, and translating innovative ideas into production‑ready products.

PERKS

• Competitive annual salary up to $300k (depending on experience) + equity
• Opportunity to make a significant technical impact on an emerging AI‑powered creative product
• Work directly with the founding team to influence product architecture, engineering priorities, and technical strategy
• Build with rapidly evolving AI technologies, specialized models, and intelligent automation

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead end‑to‑end product development across frontend, backend, and infrastructure, partnering with the founding team on architecture and execution.
• Build autonomous engineering workflows that leverage user feedback, application telemetry, and AI agents to identify issues, implement improvements, and enhance system reliability.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging AI models, open‑source technologies, and agent‑based tools to create seamless user experiences and expand product capabilities.
• Optimize video generation pipelines to improve processing speed and output quality while reducing infrastructure and model‑inference costs.
• Collaborate with machine learning specialists to develop lightweight, task‑specific models for creative brief interpretation, content evaluation, and automated quality assurance.
• Identify technical bottlenecks, rapidly prototype solutions, and implement scalable improvements that enhance product performance, maintainability, and the overall user experience.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Demonstrated experience building automated engineering systems, AI agents, or intelligent workflows that extend beyond traditional software debugging.
• Strong full‑stack development background with the ability to contribute across application interfaces, backend systems, APIs, and infrastructure.
• Experience integrating AI models, open‑source technologies, or agent‑based systems into functional software products.
• Proven track record of building and shipping complex software, ideally within an early‑stage company, product‑focused team, or relevant open‑source initiative.
• Strong technical problem‑solving skills and the ability to understand, design, and improve interconnected systems.
• High degree of initiative, ownership, and comfort working through ambiguity in a fast‑paced development environment.
• Genuine interest in AI‑driven creative applications and the engineering challenges involved in delivering fast, intuitive, high‑quality user experiences.
• Strong collaboration skills, a low‑ego approach to problem‑solving, and a willingness to experiment, learn, and iterate.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• This full‑time position offers an annual base salary up to $300k, commensurate with experience, plus equity.

ABOUT OUR FIRM

Scion Staffing, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and service provider and does not discriminate based on race, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, citizenship status, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation or belief, or any other protected class.

We are committed to the principles of Equal Opportunity Employment and are dedicated to making employment decisions based on merit and value, for ourselves, our client companies, and the candidates we represent.

For opportunities located in a region that have enacted fair chance, arrest or conviction-based employment ordinances, Scion Staffing proactively follows the enacted guidance and considers for employment all qualified applications with arrest and conviction records.

We engage in socially conscious business practices and believe that diverse, inclusive, and non‑biased talent and recruitment processes are foundational to the success of Scion as well as every client organization with whom we partner.