Senior / Staff Founding Engineer (AI/ML & Full-Stack)

Optimly; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Optimly in Seattle is seeking a Senior / Staff Founding Engineer to design and build end-to-end systems powering Brand Trust Registry and BrandVault. You will architect scalable backend services, data pipelines, APIs, and frontend interfaces for brand owners and researchers.

You will experiment with LLMs and AI agents, improve data quality and trust signals, and work closely with the founding team on product direction.

Qualifications

• Backend systems for distributed microservices and APIs.
• Hands-on AI/ML experience with LLMs and AI agents.
• Full-stack skills with modern frontend frameworks.
• Data pipelines and cloud deployment on large datasets.
• Founding-team mindset with high ownership and ambiguity tolerance.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Experience at early-stage startups preferred.
• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in CS/Engineering, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement scalable backend services and data pipelines.
• Develop and expose APIs and build frontend interfaces for brand owners and researchers.
• Experiment with LLMs and AI agents; assess model performance and reliability.
• Improve data quality, trust signals, and system monitoring; enhance data pipelines.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to a high-ownership startup culture.

Skills

Backend engineering

AI/ML with LLMs

Full-stack dev

Data pipelines

Cloud deployment

Ownership mindset

Strong communicator

Startup experience

CS/Engineering degree

Education

Bachelor’s or advanced degree in CS/Engineering

Job description

Company Description

Optimly is building the trust infrastructure for agentic commerce, ensuring AI agents represent brands accurately when answering buyer‑intent questions. Rather than relying on brand websites, AI agents pull information from sources like Wikipedia, Reddit, G2, analyst coverage, and industry directories. Optimly’s Brand Trust Registry is a verified index of more than 60,000 brands that AI agents reference as a trusted source of truth. BrandVault enables brand owners and research teams to verify and understand how brands are perceived across AI systems. Applicants can explore the product and search for their brand at optimly.ai/brand.

Role Description

This is a full‑time, on‑site Senior / Staff Founding Engineer role based in Seattle, WA. The engineer will design and build end‑to‑end systems powering the Brand Trust Registry and BrandVault, including data ingestion pipelines, AI/ML models, and full‑stack user experiences. Day‑to‑day responsibilities include architecting and implementing scalable backend services, developing APIs, and building intuitive frontend interfaces for brand owners and research teams. The role involves experimenting with LLMs and AI agents, improving data quality and trust signals, and collaborating closely with the founding team on product direction. The engineer will also establish engineering best practices, mentor future team members, and contribute to a high‑ownership, fast‑iteration startup culture.

Qualifications

• Strong backend engineering skills, including experience with modern APIs, microservices, data modeling, and scalable distributed systems.
• Hands‑on AI/ML experience, particularly with LLMs, AI agents, model evaluation, and integrating ML systems into production products.
• Full‑stack product development skills, including competence with modern frontend frameworks, UX‑minded implementation, and rapid prototyping.
• Data engineering and infrastructure skills, such as building data pipelines, working with large web‑scale datasets, and deploying services on cloud platforms.
• Ability to work in a founding environment: high ownership, comfort with ambiguity, cross‑functional collaboration, and end‑to‑end product thinking.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to non‑technical partners.
• Experience at early‑stage startups, or building zero‑to‑one products, is strongly preferred.
• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.