Founding Engineer
clera · San Francisco · $150,000 to $250,000
Open. First seen 24 September 2026.
Description
About the Role
This is the first engineering hire at an early-stage agentic integration platform serving paying enterprise customers. You will own core systems end-to-end and set the technical foundation that every future engineer builds on, working directly alongside the founders.
What You'll Do
Own the agent platform, infrastructure, and integrations runtime from design through production. Establish engineering patterns and standards that scale with the growing team. Collaborate closely with the founders, contributing technical opinion and leadership, not just code. Ship reliable, observable production systems continuously with measurable customer impact.
What We're Looking For
3 to 9 years of professional software engineering experience building and shipping production systems. Demonstrated ability to build something from zero to one, whether at an early-stage startup or through a serious side project. Proficiency in TypeScript for full-stack development, React for frontend, and Node.js for backend.
Experience integrating or building workflows around large language models (LLMs) and agent-based platforms. Hands-on experience with AWS for cloud infrastructure and PostgreSQL for data storage and database design. Experience owning end-to-end feature development across frontend, backend, and infrastructure.
Experience implementing observability, monitoring, tracing, and reliable retry and queuing patterns in distributed systems. A strong computer science or engineering academic background (Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD). Background at an early-stage, venture-backed startup; a career spent exclusively at large enterprises or big tech is not a fit for this role.
Genuine enthusiasm for joining as employee number one and shaping a company from the ground up. Compensation & Benefits Salary range: $150,000 to $250,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is available where an O-1 visa is a realistic option.
Location On-site, five days a week in San Francisco, California . Candidates currently based elsewhere in the US are welcome to apply with a concrete, dated relocation plan to San Francisco.
ABOUT THE ROLE
This is the first engineering hire at an early-stage agentic integration platform serving paying enterprise customers. You will own core systems end-to-end and set the technical foundation that every future engineer builds on, working directly alongside the founders.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Own the agent platform, infrastructure, and integrations runtime from design through production.
- Establish engineering patterns and standards that scale with the growing team.
- Collaborate closely with the founders, contributing technical opinion and leadership, not just code.
- Ship reliable, observable production systems continuously with measurable customer impact.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- 3 to 9 years of professional software engineering experience building and shipping production systems.
- Demonstrated ability to build something from zero to one, whether at an early-stage startup or through a serious side project.
- Proficiency in TypeScript for full-stack development, React for frontend, and Node.js for backend.
- Experience integrating or building workflows around large language models (LLMs) and agent-based platforms.
- Hands-on experience with AWS for cloud infrastructure and PostgreSQL for data storage and database design.
- Experience owning end-to-end feature development across frontend, backend, and infrastructure.
- Experience implementing observability, monitoring, tracing, and reliable retry and queuing patterns in distributed systems.
- A strong computer science or engineering academic background (Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD).
- Background at an early-stage, venture-backed startup; a career spent exclusively at large enterprises or big tech is not a fit for this role.
- Genuine enthusiasm for joining as employee number one and shaping a company from the ground up. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Salary range: $150,000 to $250,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is available where an O-1 visa is a realistic option. LOCATION On-site, five days a week in San Francisco, California. Candidates currently based elsewhere in the US are welcome to apply with a concrete, dated relocation plan to San Francisco.
Posting history
Reposted 7 times since 9 September 2026: a posting for this role in San Francisco was taken down and the role was posted again.
- 25 September 2026 – open
- 24 September 2026 – open
- 24 September 2026 – open
- 24 September 2026 – open (this posting)
- 23 September 2026 – open
- 19 September 2026 – open
- 17 September 2026 – open
- 17 September 2026 – open
- 16 September 2026 – open
- 16 September 2026 – open
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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