Posted Oct 22, 2026

Founding Engineer

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About the Role Join an early-stage AI startup as its first engineer, partnering closely with the founding team to build a foundational model from the ground up. This hands-on individual contributor role spans novel model architecture, training, and reinforcement learning. What You'll Do Contribute directly to the development of a foundational model using a novel architecture rather than fine-tuning existing models. Work across the model-building pipeline, including architecture, training, and reinforcement learning. Help establish the engineering foundations for an early-stage AI team. What We're Looking For A PhD and experience at a frontier AI lab. Hands-on experience contributing as an individual engineer rather than primarily in a management role. Experience spanning foundational model architecture, training, and reinforcement learning. Compensation & Benefits Base salary up to $400,000, flexible for the right candidate, plus equity. Visa sponsorship details were not provided. Location On-site in San Jose, California.