Skip to content

Menu

LinkedIndavid@raydar.xyz

Founding Software Engineer

Fast-growing consumer software company

  • LocationNew York
  • TypeFull-time
  • Posted16 October 2026

The role, as published

About the company

Our client is a fast-growing consumer software company.

The role

Raydar is recruiting for this role on behalf of our client. Own the design and delivery of application and backend features for a widely used consumer product, working side by side with company leadership. The work centers on applied AI systems and the infrastructure behind them, in a compact, in-person environment.

What you'll do

  • Build and refine the core AI agent framework, covering tool use, memory, prompting, retrieval and evaluation.
  • Take features from architecture through launch and ongoing iteration across the user-facing app and backend services.
  • Partner directly with the founders to shape a simple, polished user experience.
  • Extend agent capabilities with sandboxed tooling and backend and database infrastructure designed to scale.
  • Help deploy and tune GPU infrastructure, including fine-tuning and serving open-source language models.
  • Weigh tradeoffs between speed, spend, stability, data protection and usability when making technical decisions.
  • Contribute to future product initiatives as the company grows.

What we're looking for

  • Solid engineering background across the full stack or on the backend.
  • Hands-on experience building an agentic system that goes beyond simple LLM SDK calls, including tool calling, memory and system prompts.
  • Practical experience with open-source language models, such as serving, fine-tuning or evaluation.
  • A history of building and shipping your own product, whether a startup, side project or open-source work, with measurable results such as users, revenue or adoption.
  • A public code portfolio showing personal projects and recent, steady activity.
  • Clear, effective communication.
  • Comfort taking ownership of whatever needs attention in a lean team.
  • Willingness to work an intense early-stage schedule, up to 7 days a week with 5 in the office.

Bonus points

  • Founding or early engineer experience at an applied AI or consumer startup.
  • Strong consumer product instincts.
  • Open-source contributions.
  • A long coding history that predates AI coding tools.

Location and work model

  • New York, NY, United States
  • On-site, 5 days per week in the office
  • Full-time

Compensation, as the posting describes it

  • Equity

Ready for Founding Software Engineer?

Apply with Raydar

Apply for this role

Not quite right?

Apply to Raydar

One application, considered for new roles as they open.

Applying here sends your application to Raydar. If you also find this role on the company's own careers page, talk to us before you apply there. A direct application can mean we cannot represent you for that role.