Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco
Salary
$200,000 - $300,000 annually
Level
Mid
Work type
On-site · San Francisco
Visa
Not offered

Open. First seen 6 November 2026.

Apply on the company's site →

About the role

About the Role

A fast-moving, early-stage startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer to join as one of the first technical hires. This is a rare opportunity to work directly with the founding team, own product decisions end-to-end, and help shape the technical direction of the company from day one. You'll wear multiple hats, move fast, and have a direct impact on what gets built and how.

What You'll Do

  • Build and ship full-stack features across the product in a 0-to-1 environment
  • Own product decisions and contribute to roadmap prioritization alongside founders
  • Set early engineering standards, architecture decisions, and development practices
  • Collaborate cross-functionally in a small, high-trust team with minimal hierarchy
  • Iterate rapidly based on user feedback and business needs

What We're Looking For

Required:

  • 3–7 years of full-stack software development experience
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent from a top-20 CS program
  • Strong product sense and comfort owning decisions in a small, cross-functional team
  • Ability to thrive in ambiguous, fast-paced founding-team environments
  • Based in San Francisco, CA or willing to relocate
  • Must be legally eligible to work in the United States without visa sponsorship

Nice to Have:

  • Experience at a FAANG-scale organization and/or an early-stage startup (a mix of both is ideal)
  • Prior experience shipping products in a 0-to-1 context

Compensation & Benefits

  • Salary: $200,000 – $300,000 USD annually
  • Equity and additional benefits commensurate with a founding-team role

Location

This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be based in San Francisco or willing to relocate. Visa sponsorship is not available.

The team: Engineering HIRES STEADILY

This role is one of 357 open in Engineering. 225 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

LLM (181 of 357), TypeScript (179 of 357), React (155 of 357), Python (150 of 357), Machine Learning (75 of 357), Supabase (73 of 357), PostgreSQL (69 of 357)

OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM

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

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.

Salary context

67 other open postings titled Founding Engineer state a salary: median USD 156,000 to USD 250,000 a year.

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PLACESSan Francisco 8,593United States 77,407
COMPANYJobs at Clera 360

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