C++ Founding Full-Stack Engineer

About the CompanyOur client is a seed-stage AI startup currently operating in stealth and backed by top-tier venture capital firms. They are looking for a Founding Full-Stack Engineer at Senior or Staff level. This is a rare opportunity to own major parts of the platform from its earliest stages while helping shape how the company builds, collaborates, and operates. Our client is creating a high-trust, high-standards team of exceptional engineers who want to move quickly, solve complex problems, own outcomes, and develop better ways to deliver unmistakable customer value.About the RoleThis is a highly hands-on engineering role. You will report directly to the CEO and work closely with the founding Product Architect to build the platform.ResponsibilitiesDesign, build, test, and operate production-grade features and services.Build and operate systems deployed across public cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.Contribute to architecture and technical decisions that shape the platform.Prototype new approaches and evaluate emerging technologies, tools, and engineering techniques.Work directly with early customers to translate real-world requirements into production capabilities.Support customers with the deployment and operation of the platform in production.Use AI-driven development workflows, such as Claude Code, Cursor, or equivalent tools, to improve development velocity and quality.Help establish the standard for engineering quality and technical craftsmanship as the team grows.QualificationsAt least five years of hands-on engineering experience building, shipping, and maintaining production software.Required SkillsExperience building distributed systems, backend services, or infrastructure platforms, with a strong focus on reliability and performance.Working knowledge of cloud-native technologies, including Kubernetes, containerised workloads, service-oriented architectures, and infrastructure as code.Experience with Terraform, Pulumi, or similar tools across AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.Strong systems fundamentals, including API design, backend architecture, performance, and reliability.Strong programming proficiency in Rust or C++, with experience writing performant, production-grade code.High ownership and a bias for action in 0-to-1 environments.The ability to make pragmatic trade-offs, operate with incomplete information, and drive work from initial concept through production launch.Excellent communication skills and the ability to work directly with customers, discuss technical trade-offs, and collaborate closely within a small team.Preferred SkillsBuilding large-scale, customer-facing distributed systems and applications used by enterprise customers.Building and deploying solutions across multi-cloud and on-premises environments.Working with AI or machine-learning infrastructure, including training, inference, platforms, or supporting pipelines.Familiarity with security domains such as identity, access control, key management, or trusted computing.Previous startup or early-stage company experience.Experience within a large technology company combined with a strong desire to build something new in an early-stage environment.