Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Protege is building a secure, efficient, and privacy-centric platform for exchanging AI training data. The company is seeking a founding AI Engineer to build the technical foundation for a new vertical, lead early customer engagements, create reusable infrastructure, and help turn successful patterns into core platform capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Partner with the GM and early customers to define what the vertical actually needs technically
- Build the first MVP of reusable patterns, integrations, and tooling that future engagements will run on, leveraging our core platform where it fits and extending it where the vertical requires something new
- Make architectural decisions about what belongs in the platform layer versus vertical-specific tooling
- Create the initial technical playbook so future FDEs can build on a real foundation rather than starting from scratch
- Lead the first customer engagements in the vertical, from technical scoping through delivery and post-launch support
- Write robust code that solves immediate customer problems while compounding into reusable infrastructure
- Navigate real-world complexity across customer data, integrations, workflows, and stakeholder dynamics
- Translate messy customer requirements into systems that are durable and maintainable
- Partner with Product and Engineering to identify which patterns from early customer work should become core platform capabilities
- Surface repeatable use cases, infrastructure gaps, and product opportunities from live engagements
- Help determine when the vertical is ready to evolve from bespoke delivery into a repeatable product motion
- Work directly with the GM or Solutions Lead to define the vertical’s technical strategy and commercial approach
- Partner with Data Lab on domain-specific data and research questions
- Collaborate with other FDEs on shared patterns, tools, and approaches that should compound across verticals
- Serve as the technical voice of the vertical as it grows
- Develop a strong understanding of the vertical, the market dynamics, and the GM's strategy for building and scaling the business. Gain context on the customer landscape, commercial motion, and the unique technical requirements that will shape the vertical's success
- Build a deep understanding of what customers and data partners need, what Protege's platform can already support, and where meaningful gaps exist. Develop a clear point of view on which constraints are temporary, which require new infrastructure, and which represent opportunities for future product investment
- Evaluate the technical landscape and identify the most important investments that will unlock customer success, accelerate delivery, and create long-term leverage for the vertical. Prioritize decisions thoughtfully, balancing immediate customer needs against durable architecture
- Build the initial technical foundation for the vertical by leveraging the core platform where it fits and extending it where the vertical requires new capabilities. Deliver production-grade systems, integrations, workflows, and tooling that create a foundation future engagements can build upon
- Own early customer engagements from technical scoping through delivery and post-launch support. Use learnings from those engagements to continuously improve the underlying infrastructure, implementation patterns, and technical playbook
- Successfully reuse the vertical’s technical foundation across multiple customer engagements, demonstrating that the systems being built are durable rather than one-off solutions. Surface repeatable patterns, infrastructure gaps, and product opportunities, and partner with Product and Engineering to elevate proven capabilities into the core platform
Skills
- 3+ years of engineering experience, including meaningful 0→1 work as a founding engineer, early technical lead, or builder in a highly ambiguous environment
- Strong engineering generalist instincts with a backend and data orientation
- Hands-on experience with Python and SQL
- Comfort working across infrastructure, application logic, and data systems
- Ability to create structure where none exists and move quickly without a fully defined roadmap
- Strong technical judgment, especially around short-term delivery versus long-term architecture
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to work directly with senior technical and business stakeholders
- Ability to independently run technical scoping conversations with customers and translate them into concrete execution plans
- Prior founding engineer experience at a successful startup
- Experience extending an existing platform into a new domain or use case
- Track record of turning customer-specific work into reusable internal infrastructure or product capabilities
- Familiarity with ML, NLP, or LLM-based systems
Company Overview