Staff AI Engineer

AboutWe're a stealth AI startup building an agentic AI product, assembling our founding team in LA/SF now. We're pre-seed funded and heads-down until launch — full details are shared under NDA once we connect. We offer competitive salary, relocation assistance, great benefits, and founder-level equity.RoleYou'll own the core agent system as a production subsystem: the agent loop, context assembly, retrieval, the typed tool layer, and evaluation. This is a founding seat — you'll set the technical direction from day one rather than inherit it, and shape the product while the core decisions are still open.What you'll doOwn the agent runtime end to end — planning, tool calls, context assembly, and executionDesign the retrieval layer and the evaluation that tells you whether it's workingTake the system from prototype to production and operate itDefine how quality is measured, and hold the bar as the surface growsWork directly with the founders on product and technical directionSet engineering standards and mentor as the team growsRequired qualifications8+ years of professional software engineering experienceStrong foundation in Computer Science, including data structures, algorithms, and systems designBachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience3+ years building and operating production LLM or agent systems at volume — tool calling, retrieval, orchestration, evaluationShipped and operated these systems in productionExpert-level Python; strong SwiftExperience with models running on-device or at the edge, within real memory, power, and latency budgetsPreferred qualificationsFine-tuning, adapters, or personalizationRetrieval evaluation and offline/online eval harnessesEarly-stage startup experienceWhy joinA world-class AI team working on a deeply impactful visionA founding seat with real ownership of the system that defines the productDirect collaboration with the founders on product and technical directionBase salary $210,000–$300,000Full role details shared under NDA. DM me directly.