Founding Engineer

Location - San Francisco, CA (Onsite)

Compensation - $160,000 – $230,000 Base + Competitive Equity (0.5%–1%)

Visa - Case-by-case visa transfer sponsorship available

Company Stage - Seed Stage (~$2.5M raised)

Industry - AI, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Logistics

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About our client

Our client is building AI agents that modernize manufacturing by automating complex procurement and supply chain workflows.

Today, critical procurement operations across global manufacturers are still managed through fragmented spreadsheets, emails, and manual processes. Optimized replaces these outdated systems with autonomous AI agents that can monitor supplier activity, surface insights, and execute procurement workflows automatically.

Backed by Foundation Capital and already working with large-scale manufacturing customers, they are building the operating system for the future of industrial procurement.

As a Founding Engineer, you'll work directly with the founders to shape both the product and technical direction of the company while deploying AI systems into real-world manufacturing environments.

This is a rare opportunity to join an extremely early-stage startup, own end-to-end product development, and help define how AI transforms one of the world's largest industries.

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What You'll Do

• Build and ship production-grade AI-powered software used by procurement and supply chain teams
• Work directly with customers to understand operational challenges and translate them into product solutions
• Deploy forward with customers and gather real-world feedback from manufacturing environments
• Own projects end-to-end from architecture and implementation through deployment and iteration
• Design backend services, APIs, data models, and AI-powered workflows
• Build customer-facing product experiences using modern full-stack technologies
• Collaborate closely with founders on product strategy, roadmap decisions, and technical direction
• Help establish engineering culture, standards, and best practices as one of the earliest engineers
• Travel periodically to customer sites to support deployments and gather operational insights
• Help define the future of agentic software for supply chain and procurement operations

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Ideal Candidate Background

Experience Requirements

• 2+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Experience shipping production software with measurable business impact
• Experience owning projects end-to-end and driving stakeholder outcomes
• Experience at an early-stage startup or highly respected technology company
• Forward Deployed Engineering experience strongly preferred
• Experience working closely with customers, operators, or business stakeholders
• Supply chain, procurement, logistics, manufacturing, or operational software experience preferred
• Strong track record of rapid execution in fast-moving environments

Technical Requirements

• Strong Python development experience
• Experience building backend services, APIs, and production systems
• Full-stack capabilities preferred (TypeScript and React are strong pluses)
• Experience building with LLMs, AI products, or agentic workflows
• Comfortable using modern AI development tools (Cursor, Copilot, Claude, etc.)
• Strong system design and software architecture fundamentals
• Experience deploying and maintaining production systems

Education

• Computer Science or related technical degree preferred
• Strong academic pedigree from a recognized engineering program is a plus

Soft Skills

• Exceptional problem-solving ability
• Strong ownership mentality
• Customer-oriented mindset
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work directly with technical and non-technical stakeholders

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Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $160,000 – $230,000
• Equity: 0.5% – 1%
• Significant ownership and influence
• Direct collaboration with founders
• Opportunity to shape technical strategy from day one
• Exposure to enterprise manufacturing customers
• Visa sponsorship considered on a case-by-case basis

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Why Join

They are building AI infrastructure for one of the largest and most operationally complex industries in the world.

You'll work directly with customers solving real supply chain challenges while helping define how autonomous AI systems operate inside manufacturing organizations.

As one of the first engineers, you'll have outsized ownership across product, architecture, and company direction while working alongside a highly technical founding team.

If you're excited by AI, customer-facing engineering, and building products from zero to one, this role offers a rare opportunity to shape an entire category from the earliest stages.