Clera

Founding AI Engineer

San Francisco
Salary
$120,000 - $180,000 per year
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

This is a founding engineering role at a seed-stage AI startup building the intelligence layer for the construction industry. The company's platform transforms messy blueprints, permits, and construction documents into actionable insights — accelerating cost estimation and permitting workflows that directly impact housing, hospitals, and schools.

As a Founding AI Engineer, you'll be one of the earliest technical hires, working hands-on with state-of-the-art computer vision, LLMs, and multimodal AI to prototype and ship production systems on real-world, noisy construction documents. The focus is squarely on the intelligence layer — modeling, data pipelines, and inference — not the application UI.

This is a full-time, in-office role based in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be based in SF or willing to relocate. US work authorization is required; visa sponsorship is not available.

What You'll Do

  • Apply state-of-the-art computer vision, LLM, and multimodal AI techniques to real-world construction documents (blueprints, schedules, specs).
  • Rapidly prototype models and iterate based on user feedback and real production data.
  • Build and deploy end-to-end AI systems that operate reliably on noisy, heterogeneous inputs.
  • Own the intelligence layer: modeling, data pipelines, and inference infrastructure.
  • Collaborate closely with product and users to surface and prioritize high-impact problems.
  • Embrace practical engineering work — data labeling, ETL, deployment — as part of a small, high-trust team.
  • Communicate progress, tradeoffs, and results clearly and empathetically across the team.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves:

  • Demonstrated experience applying computer vision and/or multimodal AI in production — on real-world, messy data (documents, images, mixed modalities).
  • 0-to-1 builder mindset: you've launched an AI system into production or built the core of a new product from scratch.
  • Hands-on experience with LLMs and modern CV/multimodal model tooling and techniques.
  • Comfort iterating quickly and improving prototypes directly from user feedback.
  • Strong communication skills — honest, empathetic, and transparent with teammates and stakeholders.
  • Willingness to handle the full spectrum of startup engineering tasks (no task is too small).
  • Based in San Francisco or willing to relocate; US work authorization required.

Nice-to-haves:

  • Experience building something that shipped to real users or paying customers.
  • Background or domain knowledge in construction, AEC (architecture/engineering/construction), or related industries.
  • Experience at an early-stage startup or founding team environment.

All experience levels are welcome, including recent graduates with strong production ML portfolios.

Compensation & Benefits

  • Salary: $120,000 – $180,000 per year, depending on experience
  • Equity participation as a founding team member
  • Opportunity to shape the technical direction of an AI product from the ground up

Location

  • San Francisco, CA — full-time in-office
  • Relocation-ready candidates strongly encouraged to apply
  • US work authorization required; visa sponsorship is not available

What this role asks for

Particular to this role

Computer Vision · ETL

Rare in Clera's other 182 open postings.

Standard for data science / ML roles

LLM

Common in data science / ML postings at any company.

Compared with Clera's other open jobs.

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.

Other openings for this role

6 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

10 other open postings titled Founding AI Engineer state a salary: median USD 160,000 to USD 225,000 a year.

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