Founding Engineer

Clera

$150K — $220K *
Consumer Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 2+ years of experience in full-stack or backend software engineering.
  • Proficiency in JavaScript and TypeScript.
  • Experience with agent orchestration, LLMs, or web scraping.
  • Experience working with Linux servers in a production environment.
  • Proven track record of shipping code to production supporting a large user base.
  • Experience building entire products end-to-end.
  • Strong computer science fundamentals.

Responsibilities

  • Design, build, and operate core infrastructure including APIs and LLM-powered workflows.
  • Architect and maintain production-grade systems for millions of API requests.
  • Own projects end-to-end, from problem definition to deployment.
  • Collaborate directly with the CEO and CTO on technical decisions and architectural choices.
  • Contribute across the stack including documentation and technical tutorials.

Benefits

  • Equity participation as a founding team member.
Full Job Description
About the Role

A seed-funded B2B SaaS startup in the people-data and AI agents space is looking for a high-agency Founding Engineer to build core agent infrastructure and help scale the platform toward a Series A milestone. You'll work directly with the founding team - including the CEO and CTO - owning critical systems that power a people-data and agent platform used by developers and enterprises alike. This is a rare opportunity to shape technical strategy from the ground up at a fast-growing, well-backed startup.
What You'll Do
  • Design, build, and operate core infrastructure including APIs, LLM-powered workflows, web scraping systems, and large-scale knowledge graph architecture.
  • Architect and maintain production-grade systems capable of handling millions of API requests, with a strong focus on performance, cost efficiency, and reliability across cloud and Linux server environments.
  • Own projects end-to-end - from ambiguous problem definition through deployment and iteration - shipping quickly without sacrificing system integrity.
  • Collaborate directly with the CEO and CTO on technical decisions, roadmap priorities, and foundational architectural choices that define long-term direction.
  • Contribute broadly across the stack, including developer documentation, technical tutorials, internal tooling, and experimental builds that showcase and stress-test APIs.
What We're Looking For

Required:
  • 2+ years of experience in full-stack or backend software engineering.
  • Proficiency in JavaScript and TypeScript.
  • Experience with agent orchestration, LLMs, or web scraping.
  • Experience working with Linux servers in a production environment.
  • Proven track record of shipping code to production supporting a large user base.
  • Experience building entire products end-to-end, not just isolated features.
  • Strong computer science fundamentals.
  • Must be authorized to work in the United States - visa sponsorship is not available.
  • Must be available to work on-site in San Francisco 5 days per week; relocation is required.

Nice to Have:
  • Previous experience as a founder or early-stage engineer at a startup.
  • Familiarity with distributed systems, microservices, data pipelines, or cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP).
Compensation & Benefits
  • Salary: $150,000 - $220,000 USD annually, depending on experience.
  • Equity participation as a founding team member.
Location
  • San Francisco, CA - fully on-site, 5 days per week.
  • Relocation to San Francisco is required for this role.
  • No visa sponsorship available; must be authorized to work in the United States.

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