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?

5 of the current 20 listings (25%) 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.

20 active 25% remote median salary $250k

1.	Founding AI/ML Engineer / Startup / $500k+ / NYC (Open Talent) New York, United States \| $500,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| llms, rag, agentic systems \| 6mo ago
2.	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 \| 6mo ago
3.	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 \| 5mo ago
4.	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 \| 6mo ago
5.	Founding Engineer & CTO (NovusMinds AI) San Francisco, California, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| executive \| python, typescript, go \| 5mo ago
6.	Software Engineer, AI (Ruli) San Francisco, California, United States \| $110,000 – $200,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| entry \| python, typescript, serverless \| 5mo ago
7.	Full Stack Engineer (Mentor Talent Acquisition) New York, New York, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| mid \| typescript, postgresql, llm \| 6mo ago
8.	Staff Full Stack Engineer (NYC) (Knit) New York, New York, United States \| $250,000 – $300,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| python, fastapi, react \| 6mo ago
9.	Founding Engineer (Lance (YC W26)) San Francisco, California, United States \| $160,000 – $300,000/yr \| on-site \| full-time \| entry \| python, javascript, software development \| 5mo ago
10.	Technical Co-Founder (Dealiyo) United States \| remote \| full-time \| executive \| full-stack engineering, ai, llms \| 5mo ago
11.	Founding Engineer (Recruiting from Scratch) New York, New York, United States \| $170,000 – $185,000/yr \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| python, django, typescript \| 6mo ago
12.	Founding Backend Engineer (Wingback Security) San Francisco Bay Area, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| lead \| python, go, typescript \| 5mo ago
13.	AI Native Junior Engineer (enter.health) United States \| $80,000 – $100,000/yr \| remote \| full-time \| entry \| javascript, typescript, python \| 5mo ago
14.	Chief Technology Officer (LoanBud) New York City, New York, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| executive \| software engineering, technology leadership, product strategy \| 5mo ago
15.	Senior GTM Engineer (Circuit) Austin, Texas, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| senior \| python, typescript, sql \| 5mo ago
16.	Software Engineer - AI (NovusMinds AI) San Francisco, California, United States \| on-site \| full-time \| senior \| python, typescript, go \| 5mo ago
17.	Founding AI Engineer (Part Time) - Prompt Engineering & LLM Applications (Y22 AI) United States \| remote \| full-time \| entry \| prompt engineering, llm applications, python \| 5mo ago
18.	Applied AI Engineer - Life Sciences & Healthcare (Vi) Austin, Texas, United States \| remote \| full-time \| senior \| typescript, python, databases \| 6mo ago
19.	Entrepreneur in Residence - Technical Co-founder (CTO) (FutureSight) United States \| remote \| full-time \| executive \| applied ai, b2b, ai \| 5mo ago
20.	Lead Ultrasound Imaging Engineer (AI & Systems) (iSono Health) Sunnyvale, California, United States \| hybrid \| full-time \| lead \| ultrasound imaging, beamforming, signal processing \| 5mo ago

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?: 5 of the current 20 listings (25%) 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.