Founding Engineer
clera · New York · $180,000 to $250,000
Open. First seen 15 September 2026.
Description
About the Role
This is a founding engineering seat on a small, fast-moving team building multi-modal AI agents across voice, SMS, and email for the sports technology and sales automation space. You will own one of four core domains end-to-end, from architecture through daily production shipments, and make product decisions directly alongside customers with no PM layer.
What You'll Do
Own an entire domain end-to-end, covering architecture, feature development, and production operations. Join customer calls, synthesize feedback, and drive product decisions independently. Build and optimize multi-modal agents targeting sub-500ms voice latency, high SMS response rates, and long-running conversation state across channels. Define the quality bar for non-deterministic systems, including evals, prompt versioning, guardrails, and drift detection. Work full-stack across React/Next.js frontends, Node.js backends, and Python voice services.
What We're Looking For
3 to 8 years of full-stack engineering experience with a track record of shipping 0-to-1 products at high-growth startups, as a founder, or on new-vertical teams at large tech companies. Production proficiency in TypeScript with hands-on experience in Node.js and React/Next.js; this is a hard requirement. Demonstrated production experience with LLM APIs or agent SDKs (such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Vercel AI SDK, or Mastra), not just tutorials or prototypes.
Depth in at least one area: production voice or SMS agents, long-running agent state and memory, B2B2C or marketplace product architecture, or agent evals and guardrails. Comfort making independent product decisions and conducting customer discovery without a dedicated product manager. Ability to thrive in an ambiguous, early-stage environment and define processes rather than follow them.
Python experience with real-time voice pipelines (e.g., LiveKit, Deepgram, STT/TTS) or evaluation tooling is a strong bonus. Founder experience with verifiable traction (revenue, funding, or acquisition) or strong CS fundamentals are both valued paths. No visa sponsorship available; must be authorized to work in the US.
Compensation & Benefits Salary range: $180,000 to $250,000 USD annually , plus equity. No visa sponsorship is available. Location On-site, five days per week in Chelsea, New York City .
Remote work is not available for this role.
ABOUT THE ROLE
This is a founding engineering seat on a small, fast-moving team building multi-modal AI agents across voice, SMS, and email for the sports technology and sales automation space. You will own one of four core domains end-to-end, from architecture through daily production shipments, and make product decisions directly alongside customers with no PM layer.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Own an entire domain end-to-end, covering architecture, feature development, and production operations.
- Join customer calls, synthesize feedback, and drive product decisions independently.
- Build and optimize multi-modal agents targeting sub-500ms voice latency, high SMS response rates, and long-running conversation state across channels.
- Define the quality bar for non-deterministic systems, including evals, prompt versioning, guardrails, and drift detection.
- Work full-stack across React/Next.js frontends, Node.js backends, and Python voice services.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- 3 to 8 years of full-stack engineering experience with a track record of shipping 0-to-1 products at high-growth startups, as a founder, or on new-vertical teams at large tech companies.
- Production proficiency in TypeScript with hands-on experience in Node.js and React/Next.js; this is a hard requirement.
- Demonstrated production experience with LLM APIs or agent SDKs (such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Vercel AI SDK, or Mastra), not just tutorials or prototypes.
- Depth in at least one area: production voice or SMS agents, long-running agent state and memory, B2B2C or marketplace product architecture, or agent evals and guardrails.
- Comfort making independent product decisions and conducting customer discovery without a dedicated product manager.
- Ability to thrive in an ambiguous, early-stage environment and define processes rather than follow them.
- Python experience with real-time voice pipelines (e.g., LiveKit, Deepgram, STT/TTS) or evaluation tooling is a strong bonus.
- Founder experience with verifiable traction (revenue, funding, or acquisition) or strong CS fundamentals are both valued paths.
- No visa sponsorship available; must be authorized to work in the US. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Salary range: $180,000 to $250,000 USD annually, plus equity. No visa sponsorship is available. LOCATION On-site, five days per week in Chelsea, New York City. Remote work is not available for this role.
Posting history
Reposted 4 times since 9 September 2026: a posting for this role in New York was taken down and the role was posted again.
- 22 September 2026 – open
- 22 September 2026 – open
- 20 September 2026 – open
- 15 September 2026 – open
- 15 September 2026 – open (this posting)
- 13 September 2026 – closed 19 September 2026
- 11 September 2026 – closed 17 September 2026
- 9 September 2026 – closed 15 September 2026
- 9 September 2026 – closed 15 September 2026
- 9 September 2026 – closed 12 September 2026
Salary context
33 other open postings titled Founding Engineer state a salary: median USD 150,000 to USD 250,000 a year.
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