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Clera

Founding Engineer

San Francisco
Salary
$150,000 - $220,000 annually
Level
Junior
Work type
On-site · San Francisco
Visa
Not offered

Open. First seen 9 September 2026.

Apply on the company's site →

The team: Engineering HIRES STEADILY

This role is one of 292 open in Engineering. 226 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in March: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.

WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS

LLM (135 of 292), TypeScript (131 of 292), Python (123 of 292), React (107 of 292), Machine Learning (70 of 292), PostgreSQL (58 of 292), JavaScript (55 of 292)

OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM

From the team and dates on Clera's own job board.

About the role

About the Role

A seed-stage AI data infrastructure startup in San Francisco is looking for a Founding Engineer with 1+ years of professional experience shipping to production. This is a foundational hire at an early-stage company building a people-data and agent platform — you'll have real ownership, work directly with leadership, and help shape the technical direction of the product as it scales toward Series A. Ideal for a high-agency, first-principles thinker who thrives in ambiguity and has founder aspirations.

What You'll Do

  • Design, build, and operate core infrastructure powering a people-data and AI agent platform, including APIs, LLM-powered workflows, scraping systems, and large-scale knowledge graph architecture.
  • Architect and maintain production-grade systems capable of handling millions of API requests, with a strong focus on performance, cost efficiency, and reliability across cloud and Linux server environments.
  • Own projects end-to-end — from ambiguous problem definition through deployment and iteration — shipping quickly without sacrificing system integrity.
  • Collaborate directly with the CEO and CTO on technical decisions, roadmap priorities, and foundational architectural choices that will define the company's long-term direction.
  • Contribute broadly across the stack, including developer documentation, technical tutorials, internal tooling, and experimental builds that showcase and stress-test platform APIs.

What We're Looking For

  • Required: 1+ years of professional experience shipping software to production.
  • Hands-on experience with APIs, distributed systems, microservices, and data pipelines.
  • Comfort working with LLMs, AI agents, and knowledge graph or identity resolution systems is a strong plus.
  • Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP) and Linux server environments.
  • Strong instincts for performance, reliability, and cost-efficient system design.
  • High agency — you move fast, take ownership, and operate well with limited direction.
  • First-principles thinker who is energized by building 0-to-1 in a fast-moving environment.

Compensation & Benefits

  • Salary: $150,000 – $220,000 USD annually
  • Early-stage equity as a founding team member
  • Note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this role

Location

This is an on-site role based in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be available to work in-person.

Other openings for this role

27 open postings for this role in San Francisco, first posted 9 September 2026. The company is likely hiring for more than one position. None has been taken down and posted again.

Salary context

83 other open postings titled Founding Engineer state a salary: median USD 150,000 to USD 250,000 a year.

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