We need a senior-most individual contributor (Principal/Distinguished level) or hands-on technical founder with 10+ years of experience building core systems in production at real scale - someone who has taken a hard, ambiguous bet from 0 to 1 and owned a company-defining system others depend on. You should have deep credibility in AI and agents, extreme AI fluency with daily use of frontier tools like Claude Code and Cursor, and the judgment to operate at the company's hardest, highest-ambiguity seats. Bonus points for experience in conversational AI, voice AI, agentic systems, or fintech/regulated financial services.
What you'll do:
Own a core domain end-to-end - its architecture, technical bar, and outcomes - as the most senior technical leader in the company.
Architect and build production systems alongside your team, setting the technical standard by writing code, not from a distance.
Hold a weekly council seat alongside the founders and partner with your Domain PM as an equal to drive measurable business outcomes.
Steer and unblock engineers and leads across your domain, growing the team's technical capability without becoming a pure manager.
Ship, review, and hold the line on quality and velocity across your domain's pods.
Embed an AI-native way of working - building on frontier models and standardizing AI development tools (Claude Code, Cursor) across your domain.
Shape systems across areas like the core AI runtime, intelligence systems, AI agents, AI-first contact center, integrations, data platforms, or an AI-native consumer banking experience.
- 8-15 years of experience as a Principal or Distinguished level individual contributor (Staff/Chief Engineer), with hands-on development and ownership of end-to-end systems
- At least 2 years in startups; recent experience at Series A to D startups preferred; prior Big Tech (FAANG+) experience OK
- Experience building core systems in production at scale, taking products from 0 to 1, and owning domains end-to-end
- Strong system design, architecture review, and hands-on coding experience; must have built systems independently without heavy reliance on third-party tools
- Daily, deep use of frontier AI tools (e.g., Claude, Cursor) in workflow; strong AI fluency
- Preferably a technical founder or founding engineer with experience in high-growth fintech or AI startups
- Background in conversational AI, voice AI, agentic systems, fintech, banking, or regulated financial services
- Fast promotion history
- Published writing, conference talks, or open-source work in AI systems or platform engineering is a plus
- BS in Computer Science or STEM-related field
- Ability to work on-site 5 days a week in San Francisco, CA