Founding Software Engineer

About this role

ABOUT THE ROLE

A fast-growing, Y Combinator–backed insurtech startup (Seed stage) is hiring a Founding Software Engineer to take true end-to-end ownership of the core platform powering its AI agents — infrastructure already live with major insurance carriers and scaling rapidly. This is a high-agency, zero-hand-holding role on a small (sub-10-person) team where you design systems, orchestrate AI agents, and ship production code on a weekly cycle.

The company builds AI-powered agents that automate complex claims operations — including intake, status management, third-party outreach, and document parsing — for carriers, TPAs, and their partners across Workers' Comp, P&C, and Health insurance. The platform handles both inbound and outbound voice, email, and file-based workflows in a regulated, security-sensitive environment.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Own entire platform components end-to-end — from evaluation pipelines and model reliability to document parsing and agent execution infrastructure.

- Build and maintain reliability systems: retries, circuit breakers, failover, observability, and canary deployments.

- Design and ship an eval platform that catches regressions before customers do, including per-run evals and automated regression detection.

- Collaborate closely with forward-deployed engineers to rapidly spec, build, and ship solutions surfaced directly from customer pain points.

- Shape developer platform tooling, CI/CD workflows, and coding agent integrations to unlock team velocity.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Must-haves:

- TypeScript and SQL as primary production languages — clearly evidenced on resume or GitHub.

- 4+ years of software engineering experience; 3+ years owning a core platform component end-to-end at a VC-backed startup with measurable business outcomes.

- Hands-on AWS (or GCP) experience in a production environment.

- Startup experience (Seed–Series B) with demonstrated end-to-end platform ownership — not just feature contributions.

- Experience in a regulated or security-sensitive environment (fintech, insurtech, or healthtech) where auditability and traceability were hard requirements.

- Proven backend expertise: REST APIs, PostgreSQL, vector databases, Docker, and system architecture.

- A public artifact (GitHub, personal site, or published technical content) showing genuine engineering interest outside day-to-day employment.

- US work authorization required — no visa sponsorship available.

Nice-to-haves:

- Shipped AI/LLM agent infrastructure including tool orchestration, evaluation pipelines, or session lifecycle management.

- Previous product experience: PM internship, PM role, or product-focused engineering work.

- Experience with voice AI systems, insurance platforms, or fintech infrastructure.

- Founded a company or was an early engineer (first 10) with multi-year tenure.

- Technical degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

- Salary: $165,000 – $270,000 USD annually (commensurate with experience).

- Early-stage equity in a well-funded, high-growth startup.

LOCATION

This is an on-site role based in Los Angeles, CA. Candidates in New York City, NY or San Francisco, CA may also be considered. Relocation support available for strong candidates.

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