Founding Engineer

Job Title: Founding Engineer

Package: $120k - $180k + equity

Location: New York City (3 days per week in office)

Launchpad Recruitment are partnering with a high-growth, VC-backed (GV & YC) AI-native investment infrastructure company building the operating system for alternative investments.

We’re hiring a Founding Engineer to join a small, elite team building mission-critical AI systems from the ground up.

This is a true 01, founder-mentality role - ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity, owns problems end-to-end, and has already shipped production systems with real user traction.

The company is a Series A business modernising an $11T alternative investments market that still runs on heavily manual, legacy processes. The platform is already processing $5B+ in transactions and is backed by top-tier investors including Google Ventures and Y Combinator.

The Role

You’ll sit at the core of the engineering team building AI systems that replace manual operational workflows with scalable automation.

Key responsibilities:

Build and deploy AI-powered agents to automate ingestion, parsing, and standardisation of complex financial documents

Own end-to-end system architecture (design, build, deploy, operate)

Lead consolidation of multiple engineering systems into a unified, scalable platform

Improve CI/CD pipelines to increase deployment velocity and system reliability

Work directly with operations teams to map manual workflows into automated systems

Own production systems handling real financial data and live customer workflows

Tech Environment

Python

Angular

React

Express.js

PostgreSQL

AWS

The team care far more about engineering ownership, product thinking, and production experience than matching every technology exactly.

Why this role is different

Direct work with the CTO on high-impact systems from day one

Full ownership of production systems, not feature tickets

Building AI infrastructure that replaces real operational cost in financial services

True 01 environment - ambiguous, fast-moving, high trust

Significant autonomy and product influence from day one

What we’re looking for

Proven experience shipping 01 products with real production user traction

Strong backend or full-stack engineering background

Experience building and deploying AI systems or agents into production

Startup background (Seed Series C preferred)

Strong system design ability - scalable architecture, edge cases, reliability

Comfortable operating in ambiguity with founder-level ownership

Track record of shipping quickly and iterating in production environments

Compensation & Logistics

$120,000 – $180,000 base salary + competitive equity

Hybrid working - 3–5 days onsite in New York City

Backed by top-tier investors (GV, YC)

Ideal Candidate Profile

Most likely someone who has:

Worked in early-stage startups or accelerator environments

Built and shipped production AI / backend systems end-to-end

Operated with founder-level ownership (not just feature delivery)

Strong opinions on system design and building for scale

Experience turning messy operational problems into working systems