Founding AI Engineer

RFS Group

Apr 27, 2026

Salary: $230k – $300k
Location: San Francisco, California
Workplace: Hybrid, Onsite
Type: Full-time
Department: Engineering
Source: RecruiterFlow

Description

Who is Recruiting from Scratch:

Recruiting from Scratch is a specialized talent firm dedicated to helping companies build exceptional teams. We partner closely with our clients to deeply understand their needs, then connect them with top-tier candidates who are not only highly skilled but also the right fit for the company’s culture and vision. Our mission is simple: place the best people in the right roles to drive long-term success for both clients and candidates.

https://www.recruitingfromscratch.com/

Title of Role: Founding AI Engineer (Agentic Systems / Full-Stack)
Location: San Francisco, CA
Company Stage of Funding: Seed Stage (~$7.5M raised)
Office Type: Hybrid (3–4 days/week in office)
Salary: $230,000 – $300,000 + Equity

Company Description

Our client is an early-stage, venture-backed AI startup building the next generation of “AI coworkers”—autonomous systems that can own and execute entire business workflows end-to-end. Unlike traditional AI tools that assist users, their platform is designed to replace operational work by orchestrating multi-step processes across systems.

Founded by experienced operators who previously scaled enterprise teams at leading AI companies, the company is working with top-tier design partners and is rapidly building out its founding engineering team to define this new category.

What You Will Do

Build core agentic systems that automate complex business workflows end-to-end
Design and implement multi-step AI agents with memory, reasoning, and orchestration
Work across the full stack (frontend, backend, and infrastructure) to ship product features
Partner directly with founders and customers to define product direction
Solve hard problems around reliability, hallucination, and system trust at scale
Build integrations across enterprise tools (CRM, communication, and workflow systems)
Own product surfaces from concept to production deployment
Help define engineering standards, architecture, and team culture as a founding member

Ideal Candidate Background

3–10 years of software engineering experience
Proven experience building production AI systems (agents, not just RAG/chatbots)
Strong proficiency across the stack (backend + frontend as needed)
Experience working in early-stage startups or high-ambiguity environments
Deep understanding of LLM limitations (hallucination, state, reliability) and mitigation strategies
Strong product mindset with ability to define and build solutions end-to-end
High ownership, strong opinions, and ability to operate independently

Preferred

Experience building multi-agent or autonomous systems with real-world impact
Experience at top-tier AI or product-first companies (e.g., OpenAI, Scale AI, Notion, Retool)
Background as a founder or early engineering hire
Experience with workflow orchestration systems or event-driven architectures
Familiarity with GTM tools (Salesforce, Slack, Outreach, etc.)
Strong academic background in Computer Science or related field

Compensation and Benefits

Competitive base salary: $230,000 – $300,000
Founding-level equity: ~0.5% – 5% (depending on experience)
High ownership and direct impact on company trajectory
Work directly with experienced founders from top AI companies
Opportunity to define a new category in AI (agentic workflow automation)
Hybrid work in San Francisco with a small, high-caliber team
Fast, founder-led hiring process

This is a rare opportunity to join at the ground floor of an AI-native company building autonomous systems that fundamentally change how work gets done.

Skills

Salesforce