What does a startup engineer in the united states earn?

US base salaries skew highest globally for builder roles, with most listings concentrated in SF, NYC, Austin, Seattle, and remote-US. The typical band for a startup engineer runs $120k–$200k base + early-stage equity.

Are startup engineer jobs in the united states remote-friendly?

14 of the current 144 listings (10%) allow remote work; the rest are on-site or hybrid in United States.

What companies hire startup engineer jobs in the united states?

Jobs Base aggregates listings across YC-backed startups, growth-stage companies, and selected larger companies hiring with builder-role characteristics.

What's the difference between a startup engineer and a regular startup engineer?

Jobs Base only lists builder roles. Positions where one person owns the product end-to-end. We filter out ticket-driven, narrowly-scoped roles even when the title matches. About 9% of listings scraped match this definition.

Startup Engineer Jobs in the United States

US startup engineer postings are the noisiest title in the market. The term covers everything from "first hire at a 2-person company" to "150th engineer at a Series D." The builder-role filter narrows it to companies under 50 people where the role genuinely involves wearing many hats. Compensation ranges $120k–$200k base, with equity meaningful at companies you'd actually have heard of. The job description should specify "wear many hats" or end-to-end ownership; if it doesn't, the title is probably misleading.

144 active 10% remote median salary $250k

1.	Founding Engineer (AI startup-Remote) (CyberCoders) Seattle, Washington, United States \| $170,000 – $200,000/yr \| remote \| full-time \| lead \| python, machine learning, aws \| 4mo ago
2.	Founding AI/ML Engineer / Startup / $500k+ / NYC (Open Talent) New York, United States \| $500,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| llms, rag, agentic systems \| 4mo ago
3.	Founding Engineer (Neighborbrite) United States \| remote \| full-time \| lead \| generative vision models, llm, next.js \| 4mo ago
4.	Lead Engineer (Ralle) United States \| remote \| part-time \| lead \| full-stack, mvp, ai \| 4mo ago
5.	Founding AI Product Engineer at AI Startup (Besty AI) New York, New York, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| lead \| ai, llm, product management \| 4mo ago
6.	Founding Engineer (Albert Bow) California, United States \| Up to $300,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| python, distributed systems, llm \| 4mo ago
7.	Founding Engineer (Recruiting from Scratch) United States \| $150,000 – $200,000/yr \| remote \| full-time \| lead \| go, typescript, next.js \| 4mo ago
8.	Founding Engineer (CoinBanker) United States \| remote \| part-time \| lead \| react native, react, node.js \| 4mo ago
9.	Backend Engineer (Adapt) California, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| senior \| backend, full-stack, ai products \| 4mo ago
10.	Founding Software Engineer (Monarch Recruiters) Palo Alto, California, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| entry \| software engineering, product design, customer support \| 4mo ago
11.	Founding DevOps Engineer (Equity-Based – Pre-Funding Startup) (Orchestrator Technology Inc) Florida, United States \| remote \| full-time \| lead \| cloud infrastructure, deployment pipelines, production systems \| 4mo ago
12.	Full Stack Engineer (Underdog.io -Apply to top tech jobs in 60 seconds. A place where companies apply to you) New York, New York, United States \| hybrid \| full-time \| mid \| react, django, full stack development \| 4mo ago
13.	AI/ML Engineer \| Python \| LLM Agents \| Agentic Workflows \| Must have startup experience (Optimal) New York, New York, United States \| $180,000 – $280,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| python, llm agents, agentic workflows \| 4mo ago
14.	Full Stack Engineer (Figwork) Sunnyvale, California, United States \| $150,000 – $300,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| entry \| full-stack development, frontend, backend \| 4mo ago
15.	Founding Engineer (Reval) New York, New York, United States \| $180,000 – $300,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| lead \| typescript, react, postgres \| 4mo ago
16.	Full Stack Engineer (Wayco (YC W26)) Atlanta, Georgia, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| mid \| python, backend, postgres \| 4mo ago
17.	Founding Engineer ($170K - $250K + 0.5% - 1.5% Equity) at Healthcare AI startup backed by Scale AI Angels (CoffeeSpace) San Francisco, California, United States \| $170,000 – $250,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| senior \| python, typescript, cloud platforms \| 3mo ago
18.	Founding Engineer ($200K - $250K + Up to 1% Equity) at YC-backed AI GTM startup (CoffeeSpace) San Francisco, California, United States \| $200,000 – $250,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| lead \| typescript, react, next.js \| 4mo ago
19.	Full Stack Engineer (Underdog.io -Apply to top tech jobs in 60 seconds. A place where companies apply to you) New York City, New York, United States \| hybrid \| full-time \| mid \| react, next.js, typescript \| 4mo ago
20.	Frontier Software Engineer (GiveCampus) District of Columbia, United States \| remote \| full-time \| senior \| react, javascript, ruby on rails \| 4mo ago
21.	Founding Software Engineer (Recruiting from Scratch) New York, New York, United States \| $250,000 – $300,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| lead \| typescript, react, next.js \| 4mo ago
22.	Founding Engineer (Back-end) (Stealth Startup) San Francisco, California, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| lead \| backend engineering, apis, databases \| 4mo ago
23.	Founding Engineer (SF, On-site) (Caddie AI) San Francisco, California, United States \| $150,000 – $180,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| lead \| python, typescript, react \| 4mo ago
24.	RevOps Engineer (Dragonfly Operating Partners) United States \| remote \| full-time \| lead \| clay, n8n, heyreach \| 4mo ago
25.	Software Engineer, AI x Healthcare (Asha Health (YC F24)) Manhattan, New York, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| entry \| backend engineering, ai agents, product management \| 3mo ago
26.	Software Engineer ($180K - $220K + Equity) at YC-backed AI Data Infrastructure Startup (CoffeeSpace) San Francisco, California, United States \| $180,000 – $220,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| entry \| next.js, react, python \| 4mo ago
27.	Founding Product Engineer (Phaselaw) New York City, United States \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| next.js, react, tailwind \| 4mo ago
28.	Applied AI Engineer (flows.cv) California, United States \| hybrid \| full-time \| senior \| llm, agent systems, rag pipelines \| 4mo ago
29.	Founding Engineer & CTO (NovusMinds AI) San Francisco, California, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| executive \| python, typescript, go \| 3mo ago
30.	Founding Engineer (Vye Health) United States \| remote \| full-time \| lead \| react, postgresql, aws \| 4mo ago
31.	Systems Engineer \| Distributed Systems \| Python \| TypeScript \| Kubernetes \| Must have Startup Experience (Optimal) New York, New York, United States \| $240,000 – $350,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| senior \| distributed systems, python, typescript \| 4mo ago
32.	Founding Engineer (ryw) Houston, Texas, United States \| hybrid \| full-time \| entry \| api design, async patterns, data modeling \| 4mo ago
33.	Software Engineer, AI (Ruli) San Francisco, California, United States \| $110,000 – $200,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| entry \| python, typescript, serverless \| 3mo ago
34.	Full Stack Engineer (Mentor Talent Acquisition) New York, New York, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| mid \| typescript, postgresql, llm \| 4mo ago
35.	Forward Deployed Engineer (Recruiting from Scratch) New York City, New York, United States \| $150,000 – $225,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| mid \| production systems, integrations, ai agent configuration \| 4mo ago
36.	Founding Engineer \| Backend Infrastructure / AI Agents \| TypeScript \| Python \| Must have startup experience (Optimal) New York, New York, United States \| $150,000 – $225,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| entry \| backend infrastructure, sre, devops \| 4mo ago
37.	Frontend Developer for Early-Stage Startup (high-impact) (Lemmi) United States \| remote \| full-time \| mid \| html, css, typescript \| 4mo ago
38.	Senior Software Engineer ($250K - $300K + Equity) at YC-backed AI Data Infrastructure Startup (CoffeeSpace) San Francisco, California, United States \| $250,000 – $300,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| senior \| next.js, react, node.js \| 4mo ago
39.	Founding AI Engineer (LinkMD AI) United States \| remote \| full-time \| lead \| python, llm, ai \| 3mo ago
40.	Fullstack Engineer ($185K - $250K + 0.1% - 0.3% Equity) at Founders Fund-backed AI Enterprise Startup (CoffeeSpace) San Francisco, California, United States \| $185,000 – $250,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| mid \| python, react, apis \| 4mo ago
41.	Founding Frontend Engineer (Talently) New York, New York, United States \| $200,000 – $240,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| typescript, react, graphql \| 4mo ago
42.	Founding Engineer & CTO (WealthyMinds AI) San Francisco, California, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| executive \| python, typescript, go \| 3mo ago
43.	Founding LiDAR Perception Engineer (Metrolla) Seattle, Washington, United States \| hybrid \| contract \| lead \| lidar processing, point cloud algorithms, euclidean distance \| 4mo ago
44.	Founding AI Engineer (Farsyt) Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| entry \| python, apis, databases \| 4mo ago
45.	AI Engineer (Dataro) United States \| remote \| full-time \| mid \| claude code, cursor, cowork \| 3mo ago
46.	Head of Engineering (Copyright Slap, Inc.) United States \| remote \| part-time \| lead \| python, node.js, web scraping \| 4mo ago
47.	Founding Engineer (Nohi) San Francisco, California, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| entry \| typescript, react, next.js \| 4mo ago
48.	Founding Software Engineer (Ensense AI) United States \| remote \| full-time \| lead \| python, go, postgres \| 4mo ago
49.	Founding AI Engineer (RDE Advisors, Inc.) New York, New York, United States \| $65,000 – $80,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| next.js 14, typescript, tailwind css \| 4mo ago
50.	Founding Software Engineer (Equity Partner) (Streamwalkers) San Antonio, Texas, United States \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| backend web development, api architecture, object-oriented programming \| 4mo ago

view all 144 results

Frequently asked questions

What does a startup engineer in the united states earn?: US base salaries skew highest globally for builder roles, with most listings concentrated in SF, NYC, Austin, Seattle, and remote-US. The typical band for a startup engineer runs $120k–$200k base + early-stage equity.
Are startup engineer jobs in the united states remote-friendly?: 14 of the current 144 listings (10%) allow remote work; the rest are on-site or hybrid in United States.
What companies hire startup engineer jobs in the united states?: Jobs Base aggregates listings across YC-backed startups, growth-stage companies, and selected larger companies hiring with builder-role characteristics.
What's the difference between a startup engineer and a regular startup engineer?: Jobs Base only lists builder roles. Positions where one person owns the product end-to-end. We filter out ticket-driven, narrowly-scoped roles even when the title matches. About 9% of listings scraped match this definition.