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 Software Engineer

Location: Los Angeles, CA / New York, NY / San Francisco, CA

Company Stage of Funding: Seed Stage (recently raised ~$6M)

Office Type: Onsite (5 days/week)

Salary: $250,000 – $300,000 + Equity

Company Description

Our client is an early-stage, venture-backed AI startup building a next-generation platform to transform how companies conduct customer research. By leveraging AI agents, they enable teams to automate interviews, analyze conversations, and extract meaningful insights at scale—dramatically improving how organizations understand their users.

Founded by experienced operators from leading consumer and marketplace companies, the team is product-focused, fast-moving, and deeply committed to building best-in-class tools in a large and evolving market. With strong early funding and momentum, they are now expanding their founding engineering team.

What You Will Do

Build and own core product features across the full stack—from front-end interfaces to backend systems and infrastructure
Design and develop scalable APIs, data pipelines, and application architecture from the ground up
Work closely with founders, designers, and researchers to deliver a highly intuitive, user-first product
Rapidly prototype, iterate, and ship new features in a fast-paced startup environment
Contribute to technical direction, architecture decisions, and engineering best practices
Leverage modern AI tools and workflows to improve development velocity and product capabilities
Help shape engineering culture, team standards, and long-term product vision as an early team member

Ideal Candidate Background

4+ years of experience in software engineering, ideally in full-stack or product-focused roles
Strong experience building end-to-end applications (frontend, backend, and databases)
Proficiency in modern web technologies such as TypeScript, React/Next.js, Python, or similar frameworks
Experience working in high-growth startups or top-tier tech companies
Strong product sense with the ability to balance speed and quality
Demonstrated ability to ship quickly, iterate, and operate in ambiguous environments
Solid computer science fundamentals and problem-solving skills
Clear communicator who enjoys working closely with cross-functional teams

Preferred

Experience working on AI-enabled products or integrating LLMs into applications
Familiarity with prompt engineering or AI-assisted development workflows
Background as a founder, early employee, or product-minded engineer
Exposure to tools like Postgres, Redis, or modern cloud infrastructure
Track record of rapid career progression or high-impact contributions

Compensation and Benefits

Competitive base salary: $250,000 – $300,000
Meaningful early-stage equity (approx. 0.2% – 0.75%)
Opportunity to join as a founding engineer with significant ownership and impact
Work directly with an experienced founding team from leading tech companies
Build a category-defining AI product from the ground up
Fast interview process with high hiring urgency

This is a unique opportunity to join a high-caliber founding team at the earliest stage, take on significant ownership, and help shape both the product and engineering culture from day one.