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.

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