TRECQ

Founding Engineer, Agents

EngineeringFounderonsiteSan Francisco$200K–$300K
FullTimePosted Oct 28, 2026

About this role

About the Role

Join an early-stage AI company as a Founding Engineer building autonomous agents for complex computer-based work. You will own core systems that help agents execute reliably over extended periods, learn from accumulated knowledge, and demonstrate performance against human-level benchmarks.

What You'll Do

  • Build agents that pursue goals over weeks with minimal or no human intervention.

  • Design memory systems that help agents retain and use knowledge to improve over time.

  • Develop evaluation frameworks to determine whether agents outperform people on specific tasks.

  • Improve agent reliability and reduce the need for human review of individual runs.

What We're Looking For

  • Hands-on experience building production agents that people rely on, with a clear understanding of their failure modes.

  • Experience with agent memory, long-running execution, multi-step reasoning, and maintaining goal coherence over time.

  • A track record of building evaluation systems that inform real decisions, including comparisons against human-level baselines.

  • At least 1 to 2 years at a fast-growing or AI-focused startup, and evidence of substantive engineering work.

  • Published research that others build on, or software shipped at meaningful scale.

  • Strong engineering fundamentals and evidence of exceptional problem-solving, such as competitive programming, founding experience, or an equivalent credential.

  • Agent architecture experience is a plus. A collaborative, kind approach to working through challenging problems is valued.

Compensation & Benefits

$200,000 to $300,000 annual base salary, with up to $350,000 for exceptional candidates. Meaningful founding equity is available. Visa sponsorship is available.

Location

On-site, five days a week in San Francisco, California, United States.

About Clera

Interested?

Find the right person, then reach out. Trying more than one channel only helps your odds.

1
Find who to reach
Pick the person worth a direct note. Reveal a real email (one credit) or find a likely one.
New accounts start with 3 free reveals.
2
Reach out
Pick someone above, then draft an email or a LinkedIn note to them.
3
Or apply on their site
The front-door route, plus TRECQ drafts your application answers to paste.
Apply on Clera ↗
TRECQ writes your "why this company / why you" to paste into the form.