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Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco
Salary
$150,000 - $250,000 annually
Level
Mid
Work type
On-site · San Francisco

Not stated in the posting: visa.

Open. First seen 23 October 2026.

Apply on the company's site →

About the role

About the Role

Join an early-stage AI company as its first engineering hire, working closely with the founder to turn a working AI-powered service business product into scalable infrastructure. You will shape the architecture and technical foundations for AI agents supporting real-world business operations, with the opportunity to grow into a CTO role as the company develops.

What You'll Do

  • Rebuild and scale the existing product into infrastructure designed to support substantial user growth.
  • Design and operate the agent runtime, including orchestration, memory, verification, and reliability systems.
  • Build across backend, infrastructure, frontend, and AI agents, taking projects from design through production.
  • Set technical architecture, engineering standards, and development practices as the first engineer.
  • Ship product improvements regularly to customers running real businesses.

What We're Looking For

  • At least 2 years of experience shipping production software, or an equivalent record as a founder, solo builder, or exceptional early-career engineer.
  • Full-stack range across backend, infrastructure, and user-facing product development, with the ability to make technical decisions independently.
  • Hands-on experience building and operating LLM or AI agent systems used by real customers, not just prototypes or demos.
  • Experience taking a working product or prototype to reliable production infrastructure, including architecture, data models, runtime, or orchestration.
  • Strong generalist engineering skills and the ability to explain the technical challenges behind systems you have built.
  • Experience with agent orchestration, memory, evaluations, verification, or multi-agent workflows is valuable. Background in service businesses such as recruiting or agencies is also useful.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary is $150,000 to $250,000 annually, plus meaningful founding equity. Visa sponsorship and relocation support are available.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California. The team works together in person.

The team: Engineering HIRES STEADILY

This role is one of 430 open in Engineering. 364 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in March: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.

WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS

Python (183 of 430), LLM (182 of 430), TypeScript (171 of 430), React (136 of 430), Machine Learning (109 of 430), PostgreSQL (78 of 430), JavaScript (75 of 430)

OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM

From the team and dates on Clera's own job board.

Other openings for this role

31 open postings for this role in San Francisco, first posted 9 September 2026. The company is likely hiring for more than one position. None has been taken down and posted again.

Salary context

96 other open postings titled Founding Engineer state a salary: median USD 150,000 to USD 250,000 a year.

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