Founding Product Engineer

Clera

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

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of software engineering experience with ownership of product areas in startups or at a staff level.
  • Strong full-stack skills: backend expertise in FastAPI, Python, MongoDB; frontend competence in React, TypeScript.
  • Experience transforming ambiguous customer needs into shipped features without a dedicated PM.
  • Proficiency in building or integrating AI-assisted features and workflows, especially LLM-driven interfaces.
  • Understanding of B2B SaaS monetization concepts like pricing models, quoting, and billing.
  • High standards for correctness in financial logic and code handling money.
  • Ability to design and manage versioned APIs and typed data models.

Responsibilities

  • Scope, design, and build product modules from customer input to deployed features.
  • Design and evolve architecture for AI systems across various integration surfaces.
  • Ensure product features can be operated by LLM agents via MCP-style servers and conversational UI.
  • Move pricing logic to backend services to maintain financial accuracy.
  • Extend and maintain a typed pricing ontology covering SKUs, propositions, personas, and pricing details.
  • Lead architectural reviews and technical discussions for robust and secure systems.
  • Establish testing and monitoring practices for AI-driven features.

Benefits

  • Equity participation expected given the role's founding-level responsibilities.
  • Collaborative work environment with a fast-moving team.
  • Opportunity to shape the technical culture and best practices of the organization.
Full Job Description
About the Role

This is a founding-level, hands-on engineering role at an early-stage B2B SaaS company building an AI-driven pricing and monetization platform. You will own entire product modules end-to-end, work directly with customers and leadership, and help shape both the architecture and engineering culture of a small, fast-moving team. Financial precision and technical leadership are central to this role.
What You'll Do
  • Scope, design, build, and iterate on whole product modules independently, from customer conversations through to shipped features.
  • Design and evolve architecture for agentic AI systems across web, conversational, and vendor integration surfaces.
  • Ensure product features are drivable by LLM agents via MCP-style servers and conversational interfaces.
  • Move pricing and business logic off the client and into backend services to preserve financial fidelity.
  • Extend and maintain a typed pricing ontology using Pydantic models covering entities such as SKU, Proposition, Persona, and Pricing.
  • 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 set engineering culture and best practices.
  • Treat money-handling code as load-bearing and prioritize thorough root-cause analysis for production issues.
  • Adopt and improve an AI-native development workflow where agents assist with code and automated review gates.
What We're Looking For
  • 8 or more years of software engineering experience with proven ownership of product areas at startup or staff-level scope.
  • Strong full-stack skills: deep backend expertise with FastAPI, Python, and MongoDB (or a comparable stack), plus credible React and TypeScript frontend range.
  • Track record of taking ambiguous customer problems to shipped features without a dedicated PM.
  • Experience building or integrating AI-assisted features and agent-driven workflows, including LLM-driven interfaces or MCP-style endpoints.
  • Familiarity with B2B SaaS monetization concepts: pricing models, packaging, quoting, billing, or CPQ.
  • High standards for correctness, especially in financial logic and money-handling code.
  • Ability to design and ship versioned APIs and typed data models.
  • Experience building MCP servers or tooling for LLM agents is a plus.
  • Familiarity with billing, metering, or CPQ systems is a plus.
  • Experience with data-dense frontend components or conversational interfaces is a plus.
  • Prior experience as an early employee or technical founder shipping a 0-to-1 B2B product is a plus.
  • Must be authorized to work in the United States; no visa sponsorship is available.
Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $200,000 to $250,000 USD annually. Equity is expected given the founding-level scope. Visa sponsorship is not available.
Location

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

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