Founding Engineer (NYC)Lava: the connector to every LLM, API, and MCP.Join Lava's team in shaping how people and AI build, monetize, and work together.
What You'll Do- Work across Lava's three surfaces: the Lava app, Lava MCP, and monetization.
- Extend the Gateway and monetization systems (metering, billing, payouts).
- Collaborate closely with the founder, product, and sales to set the technical direction and architecture.
- Join sales development calls when needed, acting as a forward-deployed engineer who can bridge tech and customer needs.
- Move fast, adapt to ambiguity, and help shape the culture and processes from day one.
What We're Looking For- Driven, resourceful, and self-motivated, thriving in open-ended, fast-changing environments.
- Deep engineering experience, ideally full stack with a strong backend focus.
- Strong grasp of system design and building for scale.
- Hands-on AI user who actively experiments with and integrates AI tools.
- Experience with payments, infrastructure, or developer tooling is a plus.
- Comfortable switching between building, selling, and learning from users.
Why You'll Love This Role- You'll be solving one of the hardest and most important problems in AI: building the infrastructure that connects and monetizes AI-native products.
- Work in a small, tight-knit, and highly motivated team that stays focused on outcomes, without unnecessary process or distractions.
- Work directly with a founder who's built and sold a fintech company before, now doing it again at the center of the AI shift.
- Be part of a company operating at the cutting edge of AI, where speed, ownership, and impact matter more than process.
- The media is already excited about what we're building: read our TechCrunch feature here.
- Significant influence over technical and product decisions from day one.
- Help shape how the trust layer, access layer, and financial backbone of the AI web get built.
Location & Work Authorization- This is an in-person role based out of Lava's New York City office.
- Candidates must currently be authorized to work in the United States; Lava is unable to sponsor visas at this time.
If you're excited about owning big problems, building products people need, and having a direct hand in how the future of AI commerce works, we'd love to talk.
