Founding AI Engineer (Agentic Systems)

Senior Applied AI Engineer – Build the Next Generation of AI Research Systems$150-225k salary + equityWe have partnered with a high-growth AI startup who are rethinking how enterprises gather and act on customer insight. Their platform combines advanced LLM infrastructure with hundreds of autonomous AI workflows to deliver research and analysis at a speed traditional firms simply can't match.Trusted by enterprise teams across sectors including healthcare, financial services, and market intelligence, the business has scaled rapidly over the past 12 months and is now hiring a Senior Applied AI Engineer to help shape the next phase of growth.The OpportunityThis is an opportunity to join early and have genuine influence over both product and technical direction. You'll work closely with leadership to design and scale AI systems that automate complex research and decision-making workflows.The role would suit someone who enjoys operating in ambiguity, building from first principles, and shipping production-ready AI products in fast-moving environments.What You'll Be DoingDesigning and deploying multi-step AI workflows across text, audio, and structured dataBuilding scalable systems using LLMs, NLP, and modern AI infrastructureDeveloping intelligent automation frameworks that improve research quality and speedWorking closely with leadership on product strategy and technical roadmap decisionsImproving platform performance, reliability, and scalability across core systemsHelping shape engineering culture and best practices within a growing teamWhat They're Looking For5+ years building production AI/ML systemsPrevious startup or founding engineer experienceStrong Python engineering skills and experience working with modern AI toolingHands-on experience with LLMs, generative AI, NLP, or agentic frameworksAbility to operate across systems design, experimentation, and product deliverySomeone who enjoys startup environments and thrives building from 0 to 1Strong commercial instincts and the ability to solve real-world problems with elegant engineeringNice to have:Full-stack experienceExperience working in research, healthcare, financial services, or data-heavy environmentsWhat's On OfferCompetitive base salary + meaningful equityThe opportunity to help shape core architecture and product directionA highly collaborative, technical team building genuinely cutting-edge AI productsFast progression and high ownership from day oneThe chance to work on large-scale applied AI challenges with real commercial impactLocationHybrid / onsite in San Francisco.