Founding Engineer
$140k - $200k • San Francisco Bay Area • FullTime
Posted 4mo ago
Job Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Tech Stack
Remote Work Policy
On-site
Employment Type
FullTime
Categories
AI Agent Engineer
About the job
Modo is seeking a Founding Engineer to join their seed-stage startup. This role is crucial in shaping the product, company, and engineering culture. You will be responsible for writing code, engaging with customers, translating feedback into product changes, influencing the roadmap, and assisting in sales by rapidly building essential features. The position offers an opportunity to own features end-to-end, from prototyping to production, and to contribute to the core product surfaces, including employee-facing guidance UX and a manager dashboard. You will work across the full stack and integrate LLM features into production environments, while also establishing telemetry and evaluation systems for credible insights. As the company grows, there's a clear trajectory for leadership within the engineering team.
Responsibilities
- Ship production code to pilot customers within the first few weeks.
- Build core product surfaces: employee-facing guidance UX and manager dashboard.
- Integrate LLM features that function in production.
- Set up telemetry and evaluation systems for credible insights.
- Own large product surface areas end-to-end.
- Assist in converting pilots to paying contracts through product development.
- Drive reliability and quality standards expected by enterprise buyers.
- Shape engineering culture and participate in hiring as the team expands.
- Architect key system components.
- Engage with customers and participate in pilot calls.
- Translate customer feedback into product changes rapidly.
- Influence the product roadmap directly.
- Contribute to closing deals by building necessary features quickly.
- Own features end-to-end, from prototype to production.
Requirements
- Experience shipping full-stack production-ready products in fast-paced environments.
- Proficiency in TypeScript, React, Next.js, backend APIs, and Postgres.
- Comfort building across web and desktop platforms (e.g., Electron, Tauri).
- Experience building LLM-powered features in production.
- Strong production habits including CI/CD, testing, observability, and pragmatic system design.
- Familiarity with AI coding agents (e.g., Claude Code, Codex).
- Customer-centric approach, focusing on user needs.
- Ability to debug, write tests, communicate with customers, and join pilot calls.
- Experience with building browser-based automation tools or developer/enterprise tools is a plus.
Benefits
- Competitive salary
- Meaningful early equity
- Chance to grow into an engineering leadership role
- Opportunity to shape culture, product, and technology from the ground up
- Real ownership with code shipping to enterprise customers from week one
- In-person work environment around SF