Founding Engineer

This is a role that TechTree is recruiting for on behalf of one of our clients. TechTree is an AI-driven recruitment platform working with high-growth companies.

When you apply, our AI Agent matches you not just to this role , but to other relevant opportunities across our network, so one application can unlock multiple roles. Founding Engineer — CTO-calibre seat building an AI agent platform from zero. On-site, San Francisco. A pre-seed startup in San Francisco is building the operating system for AI-native service companies — a workforce of AI agents that runs a service business's day-to-day operations end to end. The founder is a second-time founder with a prior exit, and the company has just closed its angel round with leading operator-angels from Europe and the US.

You'd be one of the first three engineers, and the first hired — a CTO-calibre seat where you set the technical direction and decide what "production-ready" means for agents running real businesses.

What You'll Do → Build the core agent platform from zero with the founder

→ Ship end-to-end product for the first design partners, fast

→ Own architecture, tooling, and engineering culture as the team grows

What We're Looking For → 2-8 years of hands-on engineering, with production systems you built yourself

→ Zero-to-one experience: founder, technical co-founder, CTO, or an early engineer at a high-growth startup

→ Heavy personal use of AI agents, with strong opinions on the tooling and harnesses you build

In person in San Francisco, 6 days a week — relocation supported, with the option to start in Vienna first. Competitive SF base plus meaningful founding equity, up to co-founder level for exceptional profiles.

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Our AI Agent gets to know your background, experience, and what you're optimising for. It continuously matches you to live roles across our network where there's genuine alignment, not just keyword overlap. Our Human Team is there to support you through the process — answering questions, adding context, and making sure you're never left guessing or ghosted.

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