Who is Recruiting from Scratch
Recruiting from Scratch is a premier talent firm that focuses on placing the best product managers, software, and hardware talent at innovative companies. Our team is 100% remote and we work with teams across the United States to help them hire.
Location: San Francisco, CA (On-site, 6 days/week)
Company Stage of Funding: Seed (~$5M raised)
Office Type: On-site
Salary: $150,000 – $250,000 + Competitive Equity
Visa: Visa sponsorship and relocation available
Our client is an early-stage industrial AI startup building intelligent systems that automate complex decision-making in manufacturing operations.
The company is tackling a massive, outdated industry by replacing manual, human-driven operational decisions with AI-powered systems that combine agent-based reasoning with mathematical optimization.
Backed by General Catalyst and top operators from companies like Amazon, Stripe, and Applied Intuition, the company has raised ~$5M and is already delivering measurable value to customers by saving millions in operational costs.
The team is small, highly technical, and includes engineers with backgrounds in robotics, AI, and high-performance systems. This is a rare opportunity to join as a founding engineer and shape both the product and technical foundation from the ground up.
Build scalable backend systems for decision intelligence products
Develop systems combining agent-based reasoning and mathematical optimization
Own product features end-to-end from architecture to production
Build data-intensive, multi-tenant systems
Design backend infrastructure and APIs for production systems
Ship fullstack features (backend-heavy, frontend included as needed)
Work directly with customers to understand real-world workflows
Develop and manage containerized services
Rapidly prototype and deploy production-ready solutions
Collaborate closely with founders on technical direction and roadmap
Help define engineering culture, standards, and system architecture
3–8 years of fullstack or backend engineering experience
Strong backend engineering fundamentals
Experience shipping production systems end-to-end (0→1)
Startup or high-intensity engineering environment experience
Strong builder mentality and ownership mindset
Comfortable working directly with customers
Ability to operate in ambiguity and move quickly
Willing to work onsite 6 days/week in San Francisco
Experience as a founding engineer or early startup employee
Strong Python backend experience
Experience with TypeScript for frontend development
Experience with containerization (Docker) and infrastructure
Familiarity with databases such as Postgres, Redis, ClickHouse
Experience building data-intensive or distributed systems
Background in technically complex domains (logistics, robotics, infrastructure, B2B systems)
Strong educational background in CS, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or related fields
Clear signal of excellence (top schools, elite startups, hackathons, OSS, etc.)
Base salary: $150,000 – $250,000
Equity: Competitive early-stage equity
Visa sponsorship available
Relocation support available
Direct collaboration with founders
High ownership and impact from day one
Opportunity to shape core architecture and product direction
This is a rare opportunity to join a deeply technical, AI-native startup tackling one of the largest and most overlooked enterprise markets.
You’ll work on hard engineering problems at the intersection of AI, optimization, and real-world industrial systems, while building foundational product and infrastructure from scratch.
If you're excited about ownership, technical depth, and operating in a high-intensity startup environment, this role offers exceptional upside and impact.
Recruiting from Scratch provides recruiting services for companies that need to hire the best talent in software engineering, hardware engineering, product design, product management, marketing, GTM, and accounting & finance.
