Founding Backend Engineer – AI

We are looking for a Founding Engineer to join an early-stage, AI-native commercial insurance brokerage that is building its business and technology from the ground up around AI.

This is not a traditional IC role with predefined requirements. You will work directly with the CTO and founding team, helping identify business problems, decide what to build, develop solutions and measure whether they actually work.

The role has a strong backend focus, with approximately 80% backend / 20% frontend for candidates with full-stack experience.

What you'll do

• Participate in strategic discussions to understand the company's most important business problems.
• Identify and prioritize problems worth solving.
• Work closely with users and the business to design practical solutions.
• Build and ship products, often independently and leveraging AI coding tools.
• Measure the impact and effectiveness of what you build.
• Work with third-party APIs and systems, including configuration and integrations.
• Help define engineering practices and contribute to building the engineering organization.
• Balance speed, quality and reliability in an environment with significant ambiguity.

Main areas of work

Agentic Browser Automation

• Automate insurance quote retrieval across multiple carrier websites.
• Balance flexible AI-driven browser automation with reliable deterministic solutions.

Business Rules Automation

• Turn insurance sales processes and operating procedures into software.
• Handle edge cases while maintaining appropriate human oversight.

Knowledge Compounding

• Build systems that capture operational knowledge and continuously incorporate new learnings into the company's workflows.

AI-Native Product UX

• Help define which tasks should be handled directly by humans, guided by humans or fully automated through AI agents.

Must-Have Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong backend engineering background.
• Strong experience with Python and FastAPI.
• Experience with TypeScript.
• Product-oriented mindset with experience building solutions for real users.
• Experience working autonomously in startups or small companies.
• Track record of taking ownership of ambiguous, open-ended problems.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work directly with business stakeholders and users.
• Genuine engineering background rather than a profile that has moved primarily into management, Product or UX.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work effectively in a fully remote environment.
• Willingness to work across technical and non-technical challenges when necessary.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience building AI-powered products.
• Experience with agentic systems or AI automation.
• Experience with React and Next.js.
• Previous startup experience as a founder or early employee.
• Side projects or independent work demonstrating autonomy and initiative.
• Experience working directly with customers or end users.

Profile we're looking for

This role is ideal for a generalist or T-shaped engineer who enjoys ambiguity and wants to understand the business behind what they're building.

We're looking for someone who

• Likes solving problems rather than simply implementing specifications.
• Is comfortable working directly with users.
• Thinks in terms of business outcomes, not just shipped code.
• Can move between speed and quality depending on the problem.
• Is highly autonomous and self-directed.
• Is genuinely curious about how AI and humans can work together.

This is not the right environment for someone who needs detailed requirements, prefers to focus exclusively on implementation or requires close day-to-day supervision.

💰 Compensation: US$70K–85K/year

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Python
• FastAPI
• TypeScript
• React
• Next.js
• AI / Agentic Workflows

🌎 Work Model

• Fully Remote
• Time zone: PT to ET overlap

👥 Team

• 7 people overall
• 3 people currently in Engineering
• Engineering team: Founder + 2 engineers
• This position will join the team as a Founding Engineer, with significant ownership and direct exposure to the company's leadership.

🧑‍💻 Hiring Process

1. Profile Screening — Consultancy
2. Technical Interview — Consultancy
3. 30-min Soft Skills Interview — Client
4. 60-min Whiteboarding Session — Client
5. Full-day Working Session — Client

🎁 Benefits

• Company equipment provided
• PTO — details to be confirmed

If you're a backend-oriented engineer who wants to build from zero, work directly on business problems and explore what an AI-native company can look like, this could be a very interesting opportunity.