Founding AI Engineer

Scape is hiring a Founding AI Engineer to help build the first truly AI-native email client that understands your relationships, takes meeting notes in the background, and drafts context-aware follow-ups in your tone. You’ll join the initial founding team and own high-impact technical work across LLM flows, infra, and the product surface—work that will define how a billion people interact with email. This role matters because it rethinks email from the ground up rather than layering AI atop a broken foundation.

What you'll do

• Design and implement LLM flows for context engineering, prompts, and tool integrations to power smart email experiences.
• Build and optimize infrastructure for scalability, performance, and reliability, including GCP migration tasks.
• Develop and maintain the custom sync engine that makes the client feel instant.
• Operate as a founding team member and take ownership of the highest-priority problems, regardless of domain.
• Execute database migrations, performance tuning, or product-focused changes as needed based on where impact is greatest.
• Iterate rapidly on prototypes and production features to cut through inbox noise and surface relevant actions.
• Contribute to hiring and maintain an “always be hiring” mentality to grow the team responsibly.
• Work without predefined tasks, adapting to shifting needs and taking agency over outcomes.

What Scape is looking for

• Multiple years of hands-on production coding experience — coding tenure matters more than credentials.
• Demonstrated obsession and high agency through past projects, choices, or roles.
• Strong side-project portfolio that shows depth and ownership.
• Experience with LLM/context engineering (prompts, flows, tool integration) and infra work (GCP, scalability, performance).
• Prior startup experience in fast-growing environments preferred.
• Founding mentality: willing to operate with ultra-high ownership and flexibility.
• Openness to hiring 1–2 very senior, startup-motivated engineers to accelerate growth.
• Team culture fit: people who elicit a “Hell yes” excitement from their future teammates and pass the implicit “Sunday Test.”