Product Engineer ($250K–$500K) at Y Combinator
Jack & JillFull Description
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: Product Engineer, Applications Operations
Salary: $250K–$500K
Company Description: Y Combinator - The world's most influential startup accelerator
Job Description:
You will build the operational backbone of YC, developing full-stack systems for the admissions pipeline, Demo Day, and internal tools. As an AI-native engineer, you'll own the entire product lifecycle—from UI design to backend architecture—without PMs or designers, turning high-stakes operational complexity into elegant, automated software that supports thousands of founders.
Location: San Francisco, USA
Why this role is remarkable:
* You have total product ownership, acting as your own PM and designer to ship features that directly impact how the world's top startups are selected and supported.
* Join an elite 18-person engineering team at the heart of an ecosystem that has launched over 5,000 companies valued at more than $600 billion.
* The compensation structure is unique, offering a high base salary plus profit-sharing designed to be comparable to startup equity or venture capital carry.
What you will do:
* Design and ship full-stack applications for the YC admissions pipeline, including semantic search, LLM-driven email classification, and automated interview scheduling.
* Build and scale the digital infrastructure for major events like Demo Day, handling registration, investor coordination, and complex media workflows.
* Partner directly with YC partners to identify manual bottlenecks and develop custom internal tools that automate decision-making processes.
The ideal candidate:
* A product-minded full-stack engineer with a proven track record of shipping complete web applications and owning the end-to-end user experience.
* Highly proficient with AI-enabled development (e.g., Cursor, Copilot) and experienced in integrating LLMs or vector databases into production environments.
* A low-ego builder who thrives in ambiguity, potentially a former founder or early-stage engineer, comfortable working in a high-trust, fast-moving environment.
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 our website.
Step 2. Click 'Talk to Jack'.
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.