Founding Product Engineer

Clera

$200K — $250K *
Enterprise Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of engineering experience with full-stack skills
  • Strong backend expertise with FastAPI, Python, and MongoDB
  • Proven front-end skills in React and TypeScript
  • Experience shipping features independently from ambiguous problems
  • Expertise in designing REST or GraphQL APIs with versioning
  • High standards for correctness in financial logic

Responsibilities

  • Own entire product modules, from scoping to iteration
  • Design architecture for AI systems across various interfaces
  • Ensure features are compatible with LLM agents and conversational interfaces
  • Move pricing logic to backend services for financial fidelity
  • Maintain a typed pricing ontology with Pydantic models
  • Lead technical discussions and architectural reviews for system robustness
  • Establish practices for testing, observability, and monitoring AI features
  • Mentor peers and influence engineering culture

Benefits

  • Early-employee equity aligned with founding-team scope
  • Opportunity to shape the product and engineering culture
  • Access to a dynamic startup environment in San Francisco
Full Job Description
About the Role

We're a small, fast-moving team building an AI-driven pricing and monetization platform that helps B2B companies continuously optimize their pricing strategy - from packaging and willingness-to-pay analysis to deal quoting, discount governance, and CPQ workflows. We're looking for a Founding Product Engineer to own entire product modules end-to-end, work directly with customers, and help set the technical and engineering culture of the company.

This is a hands-on, high-ownership role at the founding-team level. You'll collaborate closely with customers, product, and leadership - and be expected to take ambiguous problems all the way to shipped, production-quality features. Financial logic correctness, AI-native tooling, and clean API design are first-class priorities here.
What You'll Do
  • Own whole product modules end-to-end: scope with customers, design versioned APIs, build the UI, ship, and iterate.
  • Design and evolve architecture for agentic AI systems spanning Slack bots, terminal UIs, web interfaces, and vendor integrations.
  • Ensure product features are drivable by LLM agents via MCP/FastMCP servers and conversational interfaces.
  • Move pricing and business logic off the client into backend services to preserve financial fidelity.
  • Extend and maintain a typed pricing ontology (Pydantic models for SKUs, propositions, personas, pricing structures, etc.).
  • Lead technical discussions and architectural reviews to keep systems robust, extensible, and secure.
  • Establish testing, observability, deployment, and performance monitoring practices for AI-driven features.
  • Mentor peers, influence product strategy, and shape engineering culture and best practices.
  • Treat money-handling code as load-bearing infrastructure; prioritize root-cause analysis for production issues.
  • Adopt and improve an AI-native SDLC where agents assist with code and automated review gates.
What We're Looking For

Required
  • 8+ years of engineering experience with strong full-stack skills and proven ownership of product areas at startup or staff engineer scope.
  • Deep backend expertise - experience with FastAPI, Python, and MongoDB or a comparable modern stack.
  • Credible frontend skills with React and TypeScript; able to ship a clean, polished UI independently.
  • Track record of taking ambiguous customer problems to shipped features without a dedicated PM.
  • Experience designing and building REST or GraphQL APIs with clear contracts and versioning.
  • High standards for correctness, especially around financial or pricing logic.
  • Must be legally authorized to work in the US - no visa sponsorship is available.

Nice to Have
  • Interest or hands-on experience in B2B monetization: pricing models, packaging, quoting, billing, or CPQ.
  • Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Cursor, Copilot) and experience integrating LLM agent tooling or MCP-like servers.
  • Prior experience as an early or founding engineer at a startup.
Compensation & Benefits
  • Salary: $200,000 - $250,000 USD annually
  • Early-employee equity commensurate with founding-team scope
  • Opportunity to shape product, architecture, and engineering culture from the ground up
Location

This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. Remote or fully distributed arrangements are not available for this position.

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Clera

More Enterprise Technology Jobs

Find similar Founding Product Engineer jobs: