Founding AI Engineer

Location: Hybrid New York City (3-5 days/week in office)
Position Type: Full-Time (Permanent)
Work Policy: Hybrid (no long-term visa sponsorship; can process quick visas)
Start Timeline: ASAP

About
This early-stage AI startup is building a new category of AI application by pioneering digital twins of real users that companies can interview indefinitely. The platform combines deep AI research with production-grade engineering to create synthetic user simulations that transform how organizations understand and engage with their customers.

Why join

• Be an early foundational team member with significant influence over technical and product direction

• Work on synthetic user simulations, privacy-first architectures, and large-scale AI deployments

• Collaborate with a low-ego, high-agency team committed to building something unique and impactful

• Combine cutting-edge AI research with shipping high-quality production systems

Compensation

• Base Salary: $120,000 - $250,000 (dependent on experience)

Tech environment

• Languages: Python (primary), SQL (PostgreSQL), TypeScript (preferred for full-stack)

• Frameworks: LLMs, NLP, orchestrated AI (TTS/STT, agents, vector search)

• Infrastructure: AWS, CI/CD pipelines, containerization

• Frontend (preferred): Next.js, React

Role summary
The Founding AI Engineer will own the architecture, development, and deployment of LLM-powered synthetic user simulations. This role blends research and engineeringrequiring the ability to explore novel AI methods while shipping stable, scalable products.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement synthetic user simulation architectures integrated with interview pipelines

• Deploy AI systems in production with measurable business impact

• Build, optimize, and maintain backend APIs and database systems

• Lead AWS infrastructure deployments and manage CI/CD pipelines

• Collaborate with product and research teams to translate ideas into production features

• Ensure system scalability, reliability, and privacy compliance

Must-have qualifications

• 4+ years professional ML/AI engineering OR recent PhD with relevant research

• Built and deployed ML models in production with measurable business impact

• Deep experience with LLMs, NLP, and orchestrated AI frameworks (TTS/STT, agents, vector search)

• Expert Python developer with strong backend/API design and PostgreSQL experience

• Experience leading AWS infrastructure deployments and managing CI/CD pipelines

• Strong communication skills and collaborative approach

• Ability to thrive in a high-agency, fast-paced environment

• Ability to work in-person in NYC 3-5 days/week

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with synthetic users, digital twins, or simulations

• Full-stack development with Next.js/React/TypeScript and containerization

• Publications in AI/ML research or significant research project experience

• Startup or fast-growing company experience with demonstrated impact