Founding AI Engineer ($100k-$150k + Equity) at $3.5M-funded SF AI startup

This is a job that Jill, our AI Recruiter, is recruiting for on behalf of one of our customers.

She will pick the best candidates from Jack's network.

The next step is to speak to Jack.

Job Title

Founding AI Engineer — Agent Runtime

Salary

$100,000 – $150,000 + Equity

Company Description

$3.5M-funded San Francisco AI startup founded by serial entrepreneurs from LeanData and Chronicled

Job Description

As the first engineering hire, you will build a policy-driven runtime that executes high-stakes B2B commercial workflows. Unlike simple LLM wrappers, you'll architect a deterministic execution layer where models negotiate real contracts and protect revenue. Reporting to a veteran CTO, you'll own the agent pipeline, state management, and safety guardrails.

Location

San Francisco, USA

Why this role is remarkable

* Significant ownership as the first engineering hire with 1% - 1.5% equity and direct access to founders who have scaled multiple successful B2B companies.

* Work on a mission-critical "decision-making" AI system that governs 80/20 commercial outcomes rather than just generating text for chat interfaces.

* Backed by $3.5M in funding from previous investors and led by a CTO whose prior systems verify 80% of US prescription drug returns.

What You Will Do

* Design and evolve a multi-stage agent pipeline covering intent classification, context assembly, reasoning, and response generation as a cohesive system.

* Build the event-driven runtime that governs agent lifecycles, state management, and policy enforcement to ensure safety by construction.

* Develop a robust evaluation framework to define correctness and catch regressions before they reach enterprise customers in high-stakes environments.

The ideal candidate

* Proven experience building production-grade LLM systems where reliability was non-negotiable and simple prompting was insufficient for the task.

* Strong systems engineering background with proficiency in typed languages like TypeScript, Go, or Rust and an ability to think in complex types.

* Deep understanding of the boundary between model flexibility and deterministic enforcement, with experience in retrieval, context management, and multi-turn reasoning.

Who are Jack & Jill?

Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.

And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.

Next steps

Step 1. Visit the job listing.

Step 2. Click 'Talk to Jack', or go straight there: https://www.jackandjill.ai/jobs/founding-ai-engineer-100k-150k-equity-at-3-5m-funded-sf-ai-startup-21954a2c-2dbf-4fcc-8649-ff150f64c433?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=job_post&utm_campaign=featured_role_21954a2c-2dbf-4fcc-8649-ff150f64c433

Step 3. Talk to Jack so he can understand your experience and ambitions.

Step 4. Jack will make sure Jill (the AI agent working for the company) considers you for this role.

Step 5. If Jill thinks you're a great fit and her client wants to meet you, they will make the introduction.

Step 6. If not, Jack will find you excellent alternatives. All for free.

We never post fake jobs

This isn't a trick. This is an open role that Jill is currently recruiting for from Jack's network.

Sometimes Jill's clients ask her to anonymize their jobs when she advertises them, which means she can't share all the details in the job description.

We appreciate this can make them look a bit suspect, but there isn't much we can do about it.

Give Jack a spin! You could land this role. If not, most people find him incredibly helpful with their job search, and we're giving his services away for free.