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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Founding Engineer, Platform - **Company:** Recruiting from Scratch - **Location:** San Francisco, CA, United States (Remote available) - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $225,000 - $300,000 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Databases, Distributed Systems, Design of User Interfaces, Human-Computer Interaction, Web Browsers, PostgreSQL, Uptime, Performance Tuning, Redis, Reliability Engineering, TypeScript, Unstructured Data, AI Infrastructure, Data Processing, ReactJS, System Availability, Concurrency, Database Performance, Backend, Agentic-AI, Webpack, Kubernetes, Front End Software Development, Functional Programming, Api Design, Data Pipelines - **Published:** November 10, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.careerbuilder.com/job-details/founding-engineer-platform-san-francisco-ca--761d77cd-56b2-4f75-93dc-2803181ad2de ## About the Role Startup, Application Programming Interface (API), Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agents, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Web Browsers, User Interface/Experience (UI/UX), Data Processing, Reliability Engineering, High Throughput, Concurrency, Experience: 5+ years of backend or platform engineering experience; ideally 5-10 years, * 5+ years of professional backend or platform engineering experience, ideally within the 5-10-year range. * A bachelor's degree is required. * Experience building and operating production backend systems that handle high-volume workloads. * Demonstrated experience with job systems, queues, schedulers, or data pipelines at scale. * Experience with scalability, database performance, data consistency, and high availability. * Experience working with shared infrastructure or systems that other teams, services, or products depend on. * Strong TypeScript experience, ideally including Effect or functional programming patterns. * Experience at an early-stage startup, preferably seed through Series A or Series B, or as a founding engineer or startup founder. * Demonstrated ability to take a project from an ambiguous idea through production with limited direction. * Strong technical judgment and the ability to anticipate how architectural decisions affect the broader platform. * Willingness to work in the San Francisco Bay Area under the company's hybrid arrangement. * No relocation support is available, so candidates outside the area must be able to manage their own relocation., * Backend and platform engineering. * Production job systems, queues, schedulers, and data pipelines. * High-throughput data processing and shared infrastructure. * Database performance, data consistency, and reliability. * Distributed systems and production operations. * API design and service integrations. * System design, technical trade-offs, and end-to-end ownership. Relevant Technologies * Primary language: TypeScript. * Functional programming: Effect or comparable functional TypeScript experience. * Database: PostgreSQL. * Infrastructure and data: Redis, queues, workflow engines, and high-volume data processing. * Frontend and platform tooling: React, Vite, TanStack, ElectricSQL. * AI infrastructure: Agent-oriented workflows, evaluation systems, and reliable agent interactions. * Compiler systems: Workflow execution engines and custom compiler development. Candidates do not need experience with every technology listed. Prioritize production infrastructure depth, strong backend engineering fundamentals, and the ability to reason about reliability and scale. Experience with Effect is a stated baseline requirement, so assess practical familiarity carefully. Preferred Background * Experience as a founding engineer, early engineer, or technical co-founder. * Experience at a seed-stage through Series B startup. * Experience building infrastructure used by multiple teams, services, or customer workflows. * Experience operating high-throughput job systems, queues, or data pipelines. * Experience processing large volumes of unstructured data. * Experience with functional TypeScript and Effect. * Experience with Postgres performance tuning and Redis. * Experience building workflow engines, orchestration platforms, or execution systems. * Experience building AI-native products, agent infrastructure, or evaluation frameworks. * Experience designing systems where reliability and uptime are directly visible to customers. * Experience owning product direction in an organization without dedicated product managers. ## Description * Own the workflow engine: Build and evolve the backend systems that schedule, execute, and manage customer workflows. * Scale shared infrastructure: Design systems that handle high-volume data processing, concurrent workloads, and increasing customer demand. * Improve database performance: Solve challenges involving database efficiency, data consistency, shared-table workloads, and reliable processing at scale. * Build production-grade job systems: Develop or improve queues, schedulers, data pipelines, and other infrastructure that supports customer-facing workflows. * Shape platform architecture: Make technical decisions that account for reliability, scalability, maintainability, and the impact on the wider system. * Advance agent-first infrastructure: Design systems and interfaces that help AI agents understand workflow state, interpret errors, and take appropriate corrective action. * Contribute to the workflow compiler: Help evolve the workflow engine toward a custom compiler and more sophisticated execution infrastructure. * Improve AI reliability: Contribute to the internal evaluation stack and mechanisms for testing, validating, and improving agent outputs. * Own features end-to-end: Take projects from ambiguous requirements and technical scoping through implementation, deployment, and customer outcomes. * Drive product direction: Work closely with the technical co-founder and engineering leadership to identify priorities and make product and platform decisions. * Close the loop on outcomes: Monitor how shipped features perform, identify issues, and take responsibility for improvements rather than stopping at implementation., * High ownership: Takes responsibility for projects from scoping through shipping and ongoing improvement. * Staff-level individual contributor: Combines deep technical execution with strong architectural judgment. * Autonomous: Can make progress on ambiguous projects without needing detailed instructions. * Product-minded: Connects infrastructure decisions to customer workflows and product outcomes. * Systems thinker: Understands how changes in one component affect reliability and performance across the platform. * Startup-oriented: Comfortable with limited process, shifting priorities, and broad responsibilities. * Reliability-focused: Treats uptime, data consistency, and production errors as core engineering concerns. * Outcome-driven: Measures success by what works in production and how it improves the product. * Communicative: Can clearly explain technical decisions, trade-offs, failures, and lessons learned., * Visa support: Eligible visa transfers, including OPT and H-1B transfers, are listed as supported; confirm individual eligibility. * Founding-level ownership: Opportunity to shape core infrastructure and make consequential architectural decisions. * Technical scope: Work on workflow engines, high-throughput backend systems, functional TypeScript, and agent-first infrastructure. * Direct collaboration: Work closely with the technical co-founder and engineering leadership. * Equity upside: Meaningful early-stage equity participation; candidates should evaluate the grant alongside the company's stage and offer terms. Why Join? * Own the platform's core: Build the infrastructure that powers every customer workflow. * Solve difficult backend problems: Work on data consistency, throughput, queues, database performance, and high availability. * Shape an AI-native architecture: Contribute to agent-first workflows, a custom compiler, and an internal evaluation stack. * Operate with founding-level autonomy: Own projects from initial scoping through production outcomes. * Influence product direction: Work in a small team without traditional product-management layers. * Build with a modern stack: Work with TypeScript, Effect, PostgreSQL, Redis, and modern frontend and data tools. * Make a visible impact: Improve the reliability and performance of infrastructure customers depend on every day. * Participate in early-stage upside: Receive meaningful equity alongside a competitive engineering compensation package.