Founding Engineer

Clera

$120K — $250K *
Information Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Proven production experience building backend services in Go (Golang) - a non-negotiable requirement.
  • Authorized to work in the United States without requiring visa sponsorship.
  • Experience developing frontend applications using React and TypeScript.
  • Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and production monitoring/observability.
  • Experience designing and consuming APIs (REST and/or gRPC) within microservices architectures.

Responsibilities

  • Own large product areas end-to-end, from user insights to production.
  • Build and improve agentic systems focusing on accuracy, reliability, and capability.
  • Engage in AI engineering, focusing on context engineering, tool usage, and agent architectures.
  • Gather user feedback directly to understand their challenges and define effective features.
  • Develop full-stack applications, utilizing Go for backend and React + Vite (TypeScript) for frontend.
  • Advocate for AI-first development practices, including coding agents and automation.
  • Manage CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, deployment workflows, and production observability.

Benefits

  • Generous equity package suitable for a founding-level role.
  • Unlimited budget for AI tooling, reinforcing the company’s commitment to innovation.
  • Significant influence over product development and the company’s strategic direction.
Full Job Description
About the Role

This is a founding engineer role - you'll operate at near-CTO level, taking vague problems all the way to shipped product with no hand-holding. You'll be backend-heavy and AI-native, but fully capable of going full-stack when needed. If you've ever wanted to shape a product and company from the ground up, this is that seat.
What You'll Do
  • Own large product areas end-to-end - from user insight through to production
  • Build and continuously improve our agentic systems: accuracy, reliability, and capability
  • Work at the frontier of AI engineering - context engineering, tool use, and agent architectures
  • Talk directly to users, understand their pain points, and scope features that actually solve problems
  • Ship full-stack when needed: Go backend, React + Vite (TypeScript) frontend
  • Champion AI-first development practices - coding agents, automation, and ruthless self-scaling
  • Review code quickly while maintaining high standards across the codebase
  • Design and work with APIs (REST and/or gRPC) in microservices architectures
  • Own CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, deployment workflows, and production observability
What We're Looking For

Must-haves:
  • Proven production experience building backend services in Go (Golang) - this is a dealbreaker
  • Authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship
  • Experience building frontend applications with React and TypeScript
  • Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and production monitoring/observability
  • Experience building and consuming APIs (REST and/or gRPC) in microservices environments
  • 0-3 years of professional software engineering experience (full-stack or equivalent)

Strong pluses:
  • Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or equivalent) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)
  • Prior experience with AI infrastructure, prompt engineering, model deployment, or agent orchestration
  • Experience designing and shipping AI-driven products; familiarity with agentic AI systems, LLMs, or AI agents
  • Previous startup experience or a founding/early engineer background
  • Experience with relational databases (Postgres/MySQL) and NoSQL, with solid understanding of data storage trade-offs
  • AI research background or experience at an AI tooling/coding startup
  • Former founder - or someone who has built something meaningful from scratch (startup, side project, shipped feature)
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

You thrive if you:
  • Are a sharp, autonomous problem-solver who doesn't need a PM to decide what to build
  • Have deep product sense and build for users, not for code's sake
  • Are obsessed with using and building AI-first development tools (e.g. Claude Code, Cursor, coding agents)
  • Love clean, maintainable Go and hold high standards in code review
  • Thrive in ambiguity and move fast without sacrificing quality
Compensation & Benefits
  • Salary: $120,000 - $250,000 USD annually, reflecting the outsized impact of this founding role
  • Equity: Generous equity package commensurate with a founding-level position
  • Unlimited AI tooling budget - we practice what we preach
  • A seat at the table: you will shape the product and the company's direction
Location
  • On-site in San Francisco, CA
  • Visa sponsorship is not available - candidates must be authorized to work in the United States

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