Founding Engineer - AI Solutions

MANTRAA

Founding Engineer, AI Solutions

Project-based to start, converting to a full-time founding role

Location: Remote, India, with travel to client sites. Delhi NCR preferred.

Experience: 6 to 12 years

Type: Project-based, beginning with our next client engagement

ABOUT MANTRAA

MANTRAA helps growing Indian businesses work better, both in how they hire and in how they put technology to work. We find where a business loses time and money, fix it, and make sure the change stays with the people who run it. We are early, lean and deliberate about who joins us.

HOW THIS ROLE STARTS

We are hiring for this role ahead of our next client engagement. It begins on a project basis with that first engagement and converts into a full-time founding role as more engagements come in.

We would rather say that plainly than promise a start date we do not control. If you work independently today, or you would rather build something from the beginning than join something finished, this role is written for you.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Build

This is a hands-on role and stays that way.

• Design and build solutions that fix real problems in a client’s business, often on top of the systems they already use
• Ship working things in weeks, not slide decks
• Make sure what you build is simple enough for the client’s own team to run

Shape the work

• Join early client conversations and understand the problem before anyone proposes a solution
• Scope and estimate the work before anything is sold
• Write the solution approach into proposals and present it yourself
• Run demos, and push back on bad scope before it is sold rather than after

Own the delivery

• Run each engagement end to end, working closely with the founder
• Hand over cleanly, so the client is confident running things without us

Grow the team

• Help hire the engineers who join after you, and lead them on the work

Our engagements are short and intensive: a few weeks, not several months.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• 6 to 12 years of building software, with recent hands-on work on AI applications
• Experience building for clients, not only for internal products
• Comfortable in a room with business owners, and able to explain technical choices in plain language
• Able to scope, estimate and stand behind a number
• Used to working independently and owning outcomes

GOOD TO HAVE

• Work we can look at: a repository, or a product you shipped
• Consulting or independent project experience
• Exposure to mid-size businesses in sectors such as real estate, manufacturing and financial services

WHAT WE OFFER

• A project-based fee for the first engagement
• A full-time founding role as engagements grow, for the right person
• A real say in how delivery is built at MANTRAA, from the first engagement