Software Engineer (Entry-Level)

Patapsco.AI; Elkridge (MD); On-site; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Paid time off

Paid company holidays

Job summary

Patapsco.AI is seeking a Software Engineer to join a fast-moving AI startup building a distributed platform for AI workloads, including LLM serving and fine-tuning. You will own projects, contribute to production readiness, and collaborate with a small team to deliver features end-to-end.

You will work with modern hardware and a Kubernetes-based AI lab, shaping architecture, and contributing to an open-source stack. A passion for learning and startup style work is essential.

Qualifications

• 0 to 3 years of professional software development experience.
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science or a related field; or equivalent vocational experience
• High proficiency with developing CLI tools, libraries, and / or web-based applications using OOP or OOP-adjacent languages
• High proficiency with git
• Mastery of operating Unix (MacOS) or Linux from a shell
• Familiarity with modern AI and agentic engineering
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment
• Personal projects and/or contributions to open-source projects on GitHub or similar

Responsibilities

• Work with state-of-the-art hardware (e.g. H200 GPUs) in a small Kubernetes-based AI lab, the test bench for our platform
• Design, build, and maintain scalable front-end systems and back-end APIs that orchestrate and integrate with AI models
• Prototype, fine-tune, and deploy machine learning models (e.g. LLMs) using the platform we are building
• Collaborate with product team to bring AI-powered features to life based on user feedback
• Help shape the technical architecture and product roadmap in collaboration with the CTO
• Research and experiment with emerging AI technologies and integrate them into our stack when it makes sense
• Write clean, maintainable code and documentation
• Participate in weekly show-and-tell meetings with the product team showing recent accomplishments

Skills

CLI tools

Git

Unix/Linux

OOP

Go

Rust

Python

Front-end development

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

CI/CD pipelines

Operating with large language models

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Equivalent vocational experience

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Git

Job description

About Us

We are a fast-moving AI startup building next-generation tools that transform how businesses leverage artificial intelligence. We’re nimble, product-obsessed, and user-focused. With early traction and a small but talented team, we’re looking for our next foundational hire to help shape the future of our product and technology.

The Role

We are looking for a passionate Software Engineer who thrives on the challenge of learning and mastering new domains in a dynamic team environment. We expect our team members to take ownership of one or more projects of which they are the primary contributors, and to steward these projects towards production readiness as part of a larger, primarily open-source platform.

You will work closely with the product team and play a critical role in designing and implementing foundational components of a distributed platform that manages the lifecycle around modern AI workloads, including serving LLMs for inference, performing supervised fine tuning (SFT) and reinforcement learning (RL) on LLMs, and more.

What You’ll Do

• Work with state-of-the-art hardware (e.g. H200 GPUs) in a small Kubernetes-based AI lab, which is the test bench for our platform
• Design, build, and maintain scalable front-end systems and back-end APIs that orchestrate and integrate with AI models
• Prototype, fine-tune, and deploy machine learning models (e.g. LLMs) using the platform we are building
• Work closely with the product team, often in one-or-one or small team working sessions to bring AI-powered features to life based on real user feedback
• Help shape the technical architecture and product roadmap in collaboration with the CTO
• Research and experiment with emerging AI technologies and integrate them into our stack when it makes sense
• Write clean, maintainable code and documentation
• Participate in weekly show-and-tell meetings with the product team where you demonstrate your recent accomplishments

What We’re Looking For

• 0 to 3 years of professional software development experience
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science or a related field; or equivalent vocational experience
• A high level of proficiency with developing CLI tools, libraries, and / or web-based applications using OOP or OOP-adjacent languages
• A high level of proficiency with git
• Mastery of operating Unix (MacOS) or Linux from a shell
• Familiarity with modern AI and agentic engineering
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment
• Personal projects and/or contributions to open-source projects published to a publicly accessible GitHub account (or similar)
• Additional Desired Skills:
  • Go, Rust and/or Python are highly desired
  • Front-end development experience
  • Building containers from Dockerfiles
  • Deploying and managing workloads in Kubernetes
  • Running LLMs on your own hardware
  • AI model fine-tuning, inference, and datasets
  • Working with CI/CD and managing automation pipelines

Why Join Us?

• High-impact role: You’ll be one of our first technical hires with room to grow
• Creative freedom: We believe in autonomy and trust our team to make smart decisions
• Work-life balance: We’re serious about our mission but value sustainable work
• Equity opportunity: Competitive salary plus early-stage equity
• Tech-forward culture: We love shipping, experimenting, and building things that matter

Compensation and Benefits

As a small and growing startup, we currently offer paid time off (PTO) and paid company holidays. While we do not yet provide health insurance or retirement benefits, we do offer equity compensation (Options), giving you a meaningful ownership stake in the company and its future growth. Salary will be competitive with industry standards for junior to mid-level software engineers.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.