Founding Product Engineer

Clera

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

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of software engineering experience; ownership of product areas at startup or staff-level scope.
  • Deep backend expertise with experience in FastAPI, Python, and MongoDB or a comparable stack.
  • Credible full-stack development skills: strong backend plus clean React and TypeScript UI proficiency.
  • History of transforming ambiguous customer challenges into shipped features independently.
  • Knowledge of B2B SaaS monetization concepts including pricing models and billing practices.
  • Experience with AI-assisted features and agent-driven workflows such as LLM-driven interfaces.
  • High standards for correctness in financial logic and data integrity.

Responsibilities

  • Scope, design, build, and iterate on product modules from APIs to UI, close to customers.
  • Design and evolve architecture for AI systems including Slack bots and web integrations.
  • Ensure features are drivable by LLM agents through conversational interfaces.
  • Migrate pricing logic to backend services for financial fidelity.
  • Extend and maintain a typed pricing ontology with Pydantic models.
  • Lead technical reviews and discussions to uphold system quality.
  • Establish practices for testing, deployment, and performance monitoring of AI features.
  • Mentor team members and influence product strategy and engineering culture.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to shape the product and engineering culture in a founding-level role.
  • Direct impact on customer-facing features and system architecture.
  • Small team environment, allowing for collaborative and dynamic work.
  • Potential for significant career growth in a B2B SaaS startup focused on AI-driven solutions.
Full Job Description
About the Role

This is a founding-level product engineering role at an early-stage B2B SaaS startup building an AI-driven pricing and monetization platform. You will own entire product modules end-to-end, working directly with customers and leadership to shape architecture, ship production-quality systems, and ensure every feature is drivable by LLM agents. On a small team, your technical judgment and customer-facing scope will have an outsized impact.
What You'll Do
  • Scope, design, build, and iterate on whole product modules, from versioned APIs to React UI, in close collaboration with customers.
  • Design and evolve architecture for agentic AI systems across Slack bots, terminal interfaces, web, and vendor integrations.
  • Ensure features are drivable by LLM agents via MCP/FastMCP servers and conversational interfaces.
  • Move pricing and business logic from the client into backend services to preserve financial fidelity.
  • Extend and maintain a typed pricing ontology using Pydantic models covering entities such as SKU, Proposition, Persona, Pricing, Customer, Contract, and Quote.
  • Lead architectural reviews and technical discussions 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 help define engineering culture and best practices.
  • Treat money-handling code as load-bearing infrastructure and prioritize thorough root-cause analysis for production issues.
  • Adopt and improve an AI-native SDLC where agents assist with code generation and automated review gates.
What We're Looking For
  • 8+ years of software engineering experience with proven ownership of product areas at startup or staff-level scope.
  • Deep backend expertise with production experience in FastAPI, Python, and MongoDB or a comparable stack.
  • Credible full-stack range: strong backend depth plus the ability to ship clean, independent React and TypeScript UIs.
  • Track record of taking ambiguous customer problems all the way to shipped features without a dedicated PM.
  • Experience with B2B SaaS monetization concepts: pricing models, packaging, quoting, billing, or CPQ.
  • Experience building or integrating AI-assisted features and agent-driven workflows, such as LLM-driven interfaces or MCP-like endpoints.
  • High standards for correctness, especially around financial logic and data integrity.
  • Nice to have: built MCP servers or tooling for LLM agents.
  • Nice to have: experience with billing, CPQ, metering, or pricing systems.
  • Nice to have: familiarity with data residency, SOC 2, or GDPR-compliant development practices.
  • Nice to have: prior experience as a technical founder or early employee who shipped a 0-to-1 B2B product to paying customers.
  • Must be authorized to work in the United States; visa sponsorship is not available.
Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $200,000 to $250,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.
Location

On-site in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be based in San Francisco or willing and able to relocate.

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