Founding Engineer

Home > Python programming jobs

Founding Engineer in USA

Clera
Full time
Email

USA
09/14/2026
Report

New York, NY

Responsibilities

Design and build core architecture integrating AI agents with CAD, CAE, and PLM tools while meeting defense and medical customer security requirements.
Own end-to-end engineering delivery, including design decisions, reliability, observability, evaluation suites, regression testing, and on-call operations.
Ship production AI workflows into live customer engineering programs.
Build evaluation and training loops using simulation runs, test data, engineer corrections, and field outcomes, including reinforcement learning grounded in real physics.
Work alongside partner-company engineers to identify failures and convert findings into platform capabilities.
Contribute to the roadmap and execute quickly within customer engineering programs.
Expand the platform across operating companies while mentoring a small engineering team.

Requirements

At least 4 years of experience shipping production software used by real customers daily.
Proven experience putting AI into production, including LLM agent workflows that call real tools, handle failures gracefully, and use rigorous evaluation suites.
Strong Python and backend or ML systems engineering skills, with judgment about when to use retrieval, fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, or conventional software.
Experience at a high-growth technology company with strong engineering standards.
Strong computer science fundamentals, ideally supported by a rigorous academic background.
Excellent communication skills and the ability to earn trust with experienced domain engineers.
Experience in frontier or applied AI, industrial software, simulation, CAD/CAE/EDA, or physical-world AI is a plus.
Prior production experience with reinforcement learning or fine-tuning is a plus.
Low-ego, high-standard working style and willingness to travel regularly to partner engineering sites.
Must be authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.

Benefits

Base salary of $150,000 to $220,000 USD annually.
Equity is available as part of the total package.
Full-time, on-site role based in New York City, NY.
Regular travel to partner engineering companies is expected.

Salary: $150k - $220k/yr

Clera

Clera harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to match high-growth startups with exceptional talent, streamlining the entire headhunting process. This innovative approach simplifies the job search for candidates while providing startups with access to a curated pool of skilled professional...

Similar positions

Graduate Software Engineer

Synack
Full time

UK
10/04/2026

Remote

Software Engineer - Cloud Images

Canonical
Full time

Remote
10/04/2026

EMEA, Americas

GTM Engineer

Higgsfield
Full time

USA
10/04/2026
Salary: $130k - $175k/yr

San Francisco, CA

Research Engineer

Clera
Full time

Others
10/04/2026

Zürich, Switzerland

Lead Automation Quality Engineer

London Stock Exchange Group
Full time

Others
10/04/2026
Salary: Competitive

Bengaluru, India