Founding Engineer ($150K - $250K + 0.5-2% equity) AI Systems for Offline Economy

About the job

This role is being recruited by CoffeeSpace on behalf of an anonymous AI-native systems startup focused on the offline economy.

We’re identifying a small number of exceptional founding engineers from our network. If there’s a strong fit, we’ll introduce you directly to the founding team.

Location: New York, New York, United States

Compensation: $150K - $250K base + 0.5-2% equity

Employment type: Full-time

Visa: Visa sponsorship not available

About the company

This company is developing AI-native systems specifically for the offline economy, beginning with consumer packaged goods (CPG) such as Pepsico, General Mills, and Unilever. The team, currently consisting of three members, is led by founders with a strong background in math and science, having previously led engineering teams at Nuro, Meta, and Glean. The company is backed by premier Silicon Valley investors and aims to transform how physical brands manage finance, sales, and operations.

About the role

As a Founding Engineer, you will be one of the first team members, playing a crucial role in shaping both the product and the company culture. You will work across the stack, from backend data infrastructure to customer-facing products, and engage directly with customers to understand their business objectives. Your work will focus on building platforms and agents that transform brand operations across various domains.

What You’ll Do

• Build and deploy harness evaluation platforms for fast feedback loops around product outcomes
• Develop foundational data infrastructure with both single and multi-tenant hosting models at terabyte scale
• Own the end-to-end delivery of production agents for marquee customers
• Design a context layer that captures internal company operations
• Define the culture and operational standards across product and team investments

Why This Role Is Compelling

• Opportunity to be a foundational team member at a company with strong investor backing and market positioning
• Work alongside top talent from MIT, with experience from leading tech companies
• Influence the development of AI systems that reinvent the $4.5 trillion CPG offline economy
• Competitive compensation with significant equity stake

The Ideal Candidate

• 3+ years of experience in a generalist engineering role
• Comfortable working across the stack, from backend infrastructure to customer-facing products
• Thrives in fast-moving, ambiguous environments
• Experienced with technologies such as Python, TypeScript, Next.js, GCP, and Terraform

This Role Is NOT For You If

• You require visa sponsorship
• You prefer a role with clearly defined tasks and limited customer interaction

Next steps

• 1. Apply via this LinkedIn job post
• 2. We’ll review and reach out if there’s a strong match
• 3. If aligned, we’ll introduce you directly to the team
• 4. If this role isn’t the right fit, we may suggest and make introductions to other high-signal startup roles we’re recruiting for, always with your permission.

A quick note on authenticity

This is a real, active role that CoffeeSpace is recruiting for in close partnership with the hiring team. We don’t post speculative roles and work directly with teams on their actual hiring needs.