Founding Engineer

About Chief AI

Chief AI builds AI for the people running the world's institutions, serving customers from city mayors to CEOs across the public and private sectors. This group has long been underserved, working through meetings, relationships, and a constant stream of text in Google Docs and Sheets, with little software built specifically for them. LLMs now make it possible to build real tools for this customer, and Chief AI already has paying customers and a live AI agent built on LangChain, LangGraph, and the Deep Agents framework.

About the Role

You will be Chief AI's third employee, reporting directly to Neel, the Head of Engineering, and working alongside a two-person founding team with deep roots in highly regulated environments and direct experience serving the customer base Chief AI is building for. This is a broad founding engineering role with ownership across both the traditional product and the agent layer: building features end to end, rebuilding core product surfaces, and sitting in on customer meetings to see firsthand how leaders use the product. The role requires someone who wants to own the full scope of the codebase, not just the AI layer, and who is comfortable working directly with customers when needed.

What You'll Own

Build and own product features end to end across database, backend, and frontend using Python, React, and AWS.

Build and improve Chief AI's AI agents using LangChain, LangGraph, and the Deep Agents framework.

Rebuild and own core product surfaces such as onboarding, taking full responsibility beyond the AI layer.

Engage directly with customers via email, Slack channels, and live calls to help debug issues and observe how leaders use the product.

Help shape the product process from the ground up as one of the first people in the room.

Must-Have

US citizen (no visa sponsorship; hard requirement driven by customer work).

Hands-on experience building an AI agent or LLM-based system in production, with the ability to explain how it worked, what it did, and how it was tested.

4+ years of software engineering experience with strong proficiency in Python, React, and AWS.

Genuine enthusiasm for broad ownership across the full codebase, including non-agent product surfaces, not just the AI layer.

Comfortable interacting with customers to help customers with the product.

In-person in San Francisco (SoMa), with flexibility for occasional remote days.

Nice-to-Have

Prior startup experience, particularly at an early-stage company where wearing many hats was required.

Track record of building and defending technical choices clearly, including choice of framework, architecture, and testing approach.

Experience working in highly regulated industries such as fintech, govtech, or healthcare.