Founding Engineer

Our client, an early-stage AI startup, is hiring a Founding Engineer to join the team in New York. The successful candidate will play a key role in shaping both the product vision and technical direction of the business, building cutting-edge AI systems that accelerate scientific discovery through intelligent automation, multimodal machine learning and advanced data platforms., * Design, develop and deploy enterprise-grade AI solutions that empower scientific teams.

• Build advanced multimodal AI systems, including computer vision models, speech-to-text capabilities and intelligent AI agents.
• Develop scalable machine learning pipelines and data infrastructure to support scientific applications.
• Create AI models that analyze experimental data, uncover insights, predict outcomes and optimize processes.
• Convert complex laboratory data into structured, high-quality datasets for machine learning development.
• Work closely with research partners and customers to gather feedback, validate solutions and continuously improve products.
• Shape the company’s technical architecture, engineering practices and long-term AI roadmap.
• Partner with founders and scientific leaders to drive product development and technical decision-making.
• Deliver robust, production-ready software with a focus on speed, quality and scalability.

• Proven experience designing, building and deploying production software within a startup, research environment or leading technology organization.
• Strong machine learning expertise with deep knowledge in at least two of the following areas: Geometric Deep Learning, Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), Diffusion Models, Generative AI or ML Interatomic Potentials.
• Experience developing and delivering AI-powered products that solve real-world customer challenges.
• Strong software engineering capabilities across backend development, machine learning infrastructure and cloud-based environments.
• Hands-on experience building scalable data pipelines, ML workflows and production AI systems.
• Ability to take ownership across the entire product lifecycle, from initial concept and experimentation through to deployment and optimization.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced startup environment with a high level of autonomy, ownership and accountability.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and communication skills with the ability to collaborate across technical and scientific teams.

• Salary: $150k - $220k DOE.