Founding Engineer

Clera

$156K — $182K *
Finance & Insurance
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 2-7 years of software engineering experience with a strong production system track record.
  • Experience deploying agentic AI or LLM applications.
  • Full-stack skills in Python (FastAPI), TypeScript, and React.
  • Knowledge of data infrastructure, ETL, data modeling, and SQL.
  • Familiarity with PostgreSQL or similar database systems.
  • Experience with AWS for cloud deployment.
  • Ability to monitor and debug distributed systems.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and maintain full-stack solutions, from frontend to backend.
  • Create data pipelines and tools for analysts to onboard new data sources efficiently.
  • Enhance AI systems for data parsing and extraction capabilities.
  • Oversee the entire development process from data inspection to production fixes.
  • Deliver functional improvements and new features rapidly within the first month.

Benefits

  • Participation in a dynamic, Y Combinator-backed startup environment.
  • Opportunity to shape foundational technologies and products from early stages.
  • Work closely with a small team, offering significant impact on business direction.
Full Job Description
About the Role

This is a founding engineer role at an early-stage, Y Combinator-backed fintech and healthtech AI startup, where you will be one of the first three people on the team. You will own the infrastructure, tools, and systems that power AI agents turning disparate data sources into continuously updated, source-backed models of entire industries, starting with healthcare. Your work will directly shape the product and technical foundation of the company from day one.
What You'll Do
  • Work across the full stack, shipping frontend features, real-time systems, and backend infrastructure.
  • Build data pipelines and internal tools that allow analysts to add new sources and maintain sector coverage faster and more reliably.
  • Improve agentic parsing and extraction systems, making AI agents more capable and reliable.
  • Own work end to end: inspecting data, QA-ing builds, instrumenting, shipping, and fixing issues in production.
  • Add a new information source to the platform on day one, ship a speed or reliability improvement to agentic systems in week one, and deliver the first version of a company ontology and data center within 30 days.
What We're Looking For
  • 2 to 7 years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong track record of building, shipping, and operating production systems end to end.
  • Hands-on experience building and deploying agentic AI or LLM-based applications in production.
  • Full-stack capability across Python backend development (FastAPI or equivalent), TypeScript, and React.
  • Data infrastructure and pipeline experience, including ETL, data modeling, and SQL.
  • PostgreSQL or similar relational database design and optimization.
  • AWS cloud infrastructure and deployment experience.
  • Production observability, monitoring, and debugging of distributed systems.
  • Experience with real-time data systems and streaming updates.
  • Strong engineering background from a quantitative or high-performance trading firm is a strong plus.
  • Capital markets, equity research, or broader financial services domain knowledge is a bonus.
  • Experience with modern data tools such as dbt or column-store/vector databases is a plus.
  • US citizenship or a valid work authorization is required; visa sponsorship is not available.
  • Must be able to work on-site in New York City five days per week.
Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $156,000 to $182,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.
Location

On-site, five days per week in New York City, New York, United States.

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