
Founding Engineer
DavidJoseph& · New York · United States · Hybrid
- Professional Services
- 11–50 employees
- Ottawa, Ontario
Strong hiring record · median 42 days open
Hiring signal
Actively hiring
Still listed on the employer's own board · publishes a salary range · How we score
All reasons
- This role has been posted 3 times
In its favour
- Still listed on the employer's own board
- Publishes a salary range
About the Company
Our client is a seed-stage, venture-backed AI company (alumni of a top-tier accelerator) building the AI sales platform for home-services technicians — the revenue-earners of a $650 billion industry whose software has historically been built for back-office managers rather than the people closing deals in the field. The platform helps HVAC techs and plumbers present options, close more jobs, and raise ticket sizes on-site, while AI handles the admin behind the scenes. The product is already live with some of the largest home-services contractors in the US, with strong early revenue traction and new pilots booked nearly every week.
About the Role
This is the company's first hire outside the founding team, reporting directly to the CTO. You will own full-stack feature development on a live product used by large multi-location contractors, while also spending meaningful time with technicians and business owners to gather feedback and drive deployment. The split is roughly 70% building and 30% with customers, with travel to customer sites fully expensed. Within 90 days, the expectation is that you own the design, build, rollout, and measured impact of new product lines as they launch.
What You'll Own
- Ship full-stack features from 0 to 1 on a live product used by large home-services contractors across the US (Python, TypeScript, AWS)
- Own new product lines end-to-end as the company expands beyond its core offering, from initial scope through rollout and measured impact
- Go on-site with technicians and business owners to train users, gather product feedback, and inform what gets built next
- Solve hard infrastructure problems: AI features that work offline in the field, low-latency pipelines across many data sources, and software flexible enough for heavy per-customer customization
- Shape how the company scales by defining systems and processes without being handed tickets or a playbook
Must-Have
- 3+ years of full-stack software engineering experience shipping real products with real users, demonstrating startup-level velocity
- Customer-facing engineering experience: has worked directly with end users or customers, not only internal teams
- Daily coding with AI tools (Claude Code, Codex, or equivalent) as a core part of the workflow
- Communicates clearly and confidently with non-technical people
- High agency and comfort operating in 0-to-1 ambiguity without being told what to do
- US citizen or US work-authorized; no visa sponsorship available
- Willing to work in-person in New York City six days a week and travel to customer sites as needed (70/30 split between heads-down coding and deployments)
Key Details
- Location: New York City, NY (in-person, 6 days/week)
- Employment: Full-time
- Experience: 3+ years
- Salary: $150,000 – $250,000 USD per year
- Equity: 0.5% – 1%
- Visa Sponsorship: Not available
Benefits & Perks
- Unlimited PTO
- Health and dental coverage
- Daily commute and food stipend
- Fully expensed work setup
- Gym membership
- 0.5% – 1% equity
Interview Process
- Screening call with the CEO
- Take-home assignment (approximately 3 hours)
- Take-home review with the CTO
- Onsite super day
- Offer
Skills
More jobs at DavidJoseph&
All 50- Senior/Staff Software Engineer, AgentsDavidJoseph& · San Francisco, United States · USD 220,000–315,000/yr4d ago
- MTS - Product EngineerDavidJoseph& · San Francisco, United States · USD 160,000–300,000/yr11d ago
- Forward Deployed EngineerDavidJoseph& · San Francisco, United States · USD 160,000–230,000/yr11d ago
- Senior/Staff Applied AI Engineer, Agent HarnessDavidJoseph& · San Francisco, United States · USD 200,000–300,000/yr11d ago
- AI Product EngineerDavidJoseph& · San Francisco, United States · USD 200,000–300,000/yr11d ago
Similar roles
- Founding Engineer (Engineer #2)BPT Staffing · New York, NY4d ago
- Founding EngineerTrue Talent Solutions Partners · New York · USD 165,000–185,000/yr3d ago
- Founding EngineerClera · San Francisco · USD 160,000–200,000/yr4d ago
- Founding Platform Engineer - AI StartupTangerine Search · SF · NYCtoday
- Founding Engineering LeadClera · New York · USD 200,000–400,000/yrtoday