Founding Engineer, AI — Shiplight AI

4 days ago

San Francisco, California, United States Pear VC Full time $175,000 - $250,000 per year
Founding Engineer, AI — Shiplight AI

  • Do you agree we're living through the AI revolution?

  • Do you want to be part of it — and run ahead of the curve?

  • Are you ready to help 100x productivity?

If so, join us.

At Shiplight AI, our mission is to build the foundation for enterprise-scale automation powered by intelligent agents. We believe every organization should have AI systems that can understand context, take action, and collaborate seamlessly with humans — transforming how work gets done across the enterprise.

Our first mission: fully automate software quality assurance. We're building state-of-the-art agentic QA systems that integrate deeply into the software development cycle — empowering every product manager, developer, and tester with their own AI QA engineer that validates work in real time.

You'll be joining a small, mission-driven founding team led by industry veterans, working at the intersection of AI agents, system engineering, and real-world developer productivity.

What You'll Do

  • Build core systems that enable AI agents to autonomously test and reason about complex applications.

  • Design, prototype, and ship agentic browser and device automation components.

  • Work directly with the founders to define architecture, roadmap, and company culture.

  • Experiment with cutting-edge context engineering techniques to improve reasoning and adaptability.

  • Move fast — from prototype to production — with high ownership and autonomy.

Who You Are

  • Mission-driven — you want to help shape the next era of AI-powered software development.

  • Curious and resourceful — you love solving hard, open-ended problems.

  • Hands-on builder — you thrive in early-stage environments with high speed and uncertainty.

  • Collaborative — you value teamwork and open technical debate.

  • You have 1–3 years of startup experience in the AI domain.

  • You're eager to grow into a technical leader and make a massive impact early.

Ideal Skills

  • Strong engineering fundamentals and product mindset.

  • Proficiency in Python and TypeScript.

  • Deep understanding of context engineering and prompt-based reasoning systems.

  • Familiarity with browser automation, mobile automation, or QA tooling is a plus.

  • Comfortable working across the stack — backend, frontend, and AI interfaces.

Location

  • San Francisco Bay Area — hybrid preferred.

  • We move fast, iterate face-to-face, and believe early teams build the strongest culture.

Why Join Now

  • Join at the earliest stage as the first founding engineer.

  • Shape both the product and technical vision.

  • Work directly with founders who've built successful systems and products before.

  • Receive generous equity and play a defining role in the company's success.

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