Founding AI Product Engineer, AI Infrastructure

📋 Job Overview

This is a founding-level seat with one of our clients. You'll work directly with the founders to build the company's second major product line from scratch — no inherited codebase to maintain, no backlog of someone else's decisions. You define the shape of what gets built, talk to the customers who'll use it, and ship it yourself.

🏢 About Lavendo

Lavendo partners with startups and high‑growth companies to help them hire top‑tier sales, GTM, and technical talent. This role is with one of our clients; we’ll share full details about the company and interview process as we get to know you and confirm mutual fit.

🎯 The Role

You'll work directly with the founders to build the company's second major product line from scratch. You define the shape of what gets built, talk to the customers who'll use it, and ship it yourself. If you want to operate like a founder without the fundraising grind, this is about as close as it gets: real revenue, real customers, real stakes, and a small enough team that your work is immediately visible.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Talk directly to customers to surface their pain points, pressure-test solutions, and turn raw feedback into shipped features
• Build new product features end-to-end, from concept to production, using Python and FastAPI
• Partner with the founders to define and build the company's second major product line
• Prototype quickly, iterate based on real user feedback, and ship fast in an ambiguous, early-stage environment
• Own major product areas spanning backend APIs, the dashboard, and developer experience

📌 Required Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in AI engineering, with a demonstrated ability to ship production code and talk directly to users
• A bachelor's degree from a top-25 U.S. CS program
• Production Python development experience, with FastAPI preferred, and comfort across backend, frontend, APIs, and infrastructure
• Strong hands-on experience with LLM APIs or AI infrastructure (OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock, Azure, VertexAI)
• A track record of high-intensity, high-ownership work: tenure at a high-growth startup, fast promotions at a top tech firm, or notable entrepreneurial projects in college
• Demonstrated initiative signals, such as an active GitHub profile, former startup founder experience, or standout independent projects or competitions
• Strong communication skills for direct customer interaction

🎁 Benefits

• Base salary $200K–$250K
• Competitive equity, positioned at the top of the market for seed-stage founding engineers
• Top-tier Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits, including FSA
• Relocation stipend offered for candidates moving within the US

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

• Open to visa transfers (OPT, H1B transfers)