Founding AI Engineer

Job Description Job Description About the Role

This is a founding engineering role at a seed-stage AI startup building the intelligence layer for the construction industry. The company's platform transforms messy blueprints, permits, and construction documents into actionable insights - accelerating cost estimation and permitting workflows that directly impact housing, hospitals, and schools.

As a Founding AI Engineer, you'll be one of the earliest technical hires, working hands-on with state-of-the-art computer vision, LLMs, and multimodal AI to prototype and ship production systems on real-world, noisy construction documents. The focus is squarely on the intelligence layer - modeling, data pipelines, and inference - not the application UI.

This is a full-time, in-office role based in San Francisco, CA. Candidates must be based in SF or willing to relocate. US work authorization is required; visa sponsorship is not available.

What You'll Do

• Apply state-of-the-art computer vision, LLM, and multimodal AI techniques to real-world construction documents (blueprints, schedules, specs).

• Rapidly prototype models and iterate based on user feedback and real production data.

• Build and deploy end-to-end AI systems that operate reliably on noisy, heterogeneous inputs.

• Own the intelligence layer: modeling, data pipelines, and inference infrastructure.

• Collaborate closely with product and users to surface and prioritize high-impact problems.

• Embrace practical engineering work - data labeling, ETL, deployment - as part of a small, high-trust team.

• Communicate progress, tradeoffs, and results clearly and empathetically across the team.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves:

• Demonstrated experience applying computer vision and/or multimodal AI in production - on real-world, messy data (documents, images, mixed modalities).

• 0-to-1 builder mindset: you've launched an AI system into production or built the core of a new product from scratch.

• Hands-on experience with LLMs and modern CV/multimodal model tooling and techniques.

• Comfort iterating quickly and improving prototypes directly from user feedback.

• Strong communication skills - honest, empathetic, and transparent with teammates and stakeholders.

• Willingness to handle the full spectrum of startup engineering tasks (no task is too small).

• Based in San Francisco or willing to relocate; US work authorization required.

Nice-to-haves:

• Experience building something that shipped to real users or paying customers.

• Background or domain knowledge in construction, AEC (architecture/engineering/construction), or related industries.

• Experience at an early-stage startup or founding team environment.

All experience levels are welcome, including recent graduates with strong production ML portfolios.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $120,000 - $180,000 per year, depending on experience

• Equity participation as a founding team member

• Opportunity to shape the technical direction of an AI product from the ground up

Location

• San Francisco, CA - full-time in-office

• Relocation-ready candidates strongly encouraged to apply

• US work authorization required; visa sponsorship is not available