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Jobs
Engineering

Senior Founding Engineer

San Francisco, US
Includes:
  • permanent
  • $160K/yr - $220K/yr
  • Engineering
  • Office work
  • Full-time

About the role

I’m working with a YC-backed AI startup that has recently crossed $1M ARR and is processing millions of minutes per month for enterprise clients. They’re now hiring a Senior Founding Engineer to help them scale the core platform.

This is a genuinely high-impact role. You will be one of the most senior technical voices in the company and a trusted partner to the founders on architecture and long-term technical direction.

The Opportunity

  • Join as a senior member of a small, ambitious engineering team

  • Solve real scaling challenges: big-tech-level infrastructure demands in a seed-stage environment

  • Influence core architectural decisions across backend, frontend, and AI systems

  • Play a key role in shaping the engineering culture and standards

  • Clear path into engineering leadership as the company grows

What They’re Looking For

  • 6+ years of engineering experience

  • Prior experience as a founding or early engineer in a startup environment

  • Strong backend fundamentals (Python, SQL)

  • Frontend capability (React preferred)

  • Experience building and operating production systems at meaningful scale

  • Voice AI experience is a strong plus

  • Low ego, high ownership, comfortable working hard in a fast-moving environment

  • Demonstrable technical depth (strong GitHub or equivalent body of work)

The team today is young and highly capable. They’re looking for someone who has been through the full startup cycle before and can bring maturity, perspective, and technical judgement.

If you’ve built at scale, thrived in early-stage environments, and want to help shape the technical backbone of a fast-growing AI company, message me directly.

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Robert Ogley

Robert Ogley

Global Product Lead - Wise

“I was wrapping up our annual hiring stats, which prompted me to look across the rest of our team, and did you know that HartleyCo placed 50% of our entire DS/ML/Software team? It's been a real pleasure working with you and look forward to continuing working with you next year. Thanks for your continued support and guidance - and answering all my questions when it comes to writing our job specs and understanding the market better. It's been really helpful. Do send my best wishes and thanks to the wider team - particularly Chris whose patience is never wavering.”

Caroline Thomson

Caroline Thomson

VP of People - LabGenius

Josh has been consistently outstanding always proactive, transparent, and genuinely focused on understanding the unique needs we have at SimCare. What sets Josh apart is his ability to intuitively understand both what we needed and what candidates were looking for, while communicating clearly to align both sides (he's seriously a great communicator). I’m confident that your experience with Josh will be just as exceptional as ours has been. Best

Tiko

Tiko

Co-Founder - SimCare AI (YC S24)

I had an excellent experience working with Charlie from HartleyCo, during our search for engineers in the UK. Charlie took the time to deeply understand not only our technical requirements, but also our company culture, values, and long-term objectives. This thoughtful approach made a real difference in the quality and relevance of the candidates presented to us. Charlie consistently demonstrated strong market knowledge, professionalism, and genuine commitment to delivering the right results rather than just filling roles quickly. The engineers we hired through this partnership have exceeded our expectations and are already making a meaningful impact within our teams, both on a technical and personal level. I truly appreciated the consultative approach and the high level of care shown throughout the process. I would gladly recommend Charlie and HartleyCo as a reliable, knowledgeable, and trusted recruitment partner.

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Irina Zozulja

Head of People Operations & Culture

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