Founding AI Engineer

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.

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