{"id":197257,"date":"2026-03-03T14:04:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T00:05:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:05:21","slug":"eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california","status":"publish","type":"job_listing","link":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Founding AI Engineer"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><strong><a id=\"myCustomID\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/EB8CDD1A-D1D1-4F13-3BD8-08D5DC096EA6\">To Apply for this Job Click Here<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Founding AI Engineer <\/strong> <\/p>\n<p> <strong>San Francisco, CA (Hybrid\/On\u2011site preferred)<\/strong> <br \/> <strong>Founding Team * Full\u2011Time<\/strong> <br \/> <strong>$250,000-$300,000 salary + equity<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p><strong> About the Role<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m looking for a <strong>hands\u2011on Founding AI Engineer<\/strong> to build and ship the core AI systems that will drive the product forward. Your work will center on <strong>fine\u2011tuning large language models<\/strong>, designing and owning training pipelines, and deploying models that perform reliably in real\u2011world production environments. <\/p>\n<p>This role is ideal for someone who loves building: running experiments, writing code, optimizing models, and taking features from early prototype to fully deployed. You&#8217;ll work directly with me, help define our technical direction, and make an outsized impact from day one. <\/p>\n<p><strong> What You&#8217;ll Do<\/strong> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"1\">Fine\u2011tune and adapt leading LLMs (OpenAI, Claude, Llama, Mistral, OSS) for production use cases. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-listid=\"1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\">Build hands\u2011on data pipelines for SFT, DPO, LoRA, RL methods, and synthetic data generation. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-aria-level=\"1\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\">Design evaluation systems to measure accuracy, reliability, grounding, and hallucination reduction. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-posinset=\"4\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"1\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-aria-level=\"1\">Develop high\u2011performance inference infrastructure (quantization, batching, GPU optimization). <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-aria-level=\"1\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-aria-posinset=\"5\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\">Own the full lifecycle of ML features: modeling \u2192 pipelines \u2192 infra \u2192 deployment. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-aria-posinset=\"6\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\">Rapidly experiment, iterate, and improve model performance with tight feedback loops. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-font=\"Symbol\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-aria-posinset=\"7\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\">Collaborate with me on architecture decisions and product direction. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong> What I&#8217;m Looking For<\/strong> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"2\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-aria-level=\"1\">Strong experience fine\u2011tuning and deploying LLMs in production. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-listid=\"2\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\">Deep ML engineering skills: Python, PyTorch, transformers, distributed\/accelerated training. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"2\">Comfort handling messy, real\u2011world data and building robust pipelines. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"2\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-posinset=\"4\">Ability to move quickly, make informed tradeoffs, and deliver production-quality systems. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-aria-level=\"1\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"2\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-aria-posinset=\"5\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\">A builder&#8217;s mindset-resourceful, execution\u2011driven, and energized by 0\u21921 challenges. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u2b50 Bonus Points<\/strong> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-aria-level=\"1\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"3\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\">Experience with agentic systems, tool\u2011calling, or structured reasoning workflows. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-listid=\"3\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\">Background in MLOps, model evaluation frameworks, or GPU-aware engineering. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-listid=\"3\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\">Early\u2011stage startup or founding-team experience. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong> Why Join<\/strong> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-aria-level=\"1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"4\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\"><strong>Founding-level equity<\/strong> with meaningful ownership. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-listid=\"4\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\">Massive responsibility and autonomy over the AI systems at the heart of the product. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-list-defn-props=\"{\"335552541\":1,\"335559683\":0,\"335559684\":-2,\"335559685\":720,\"335559991\":360,\"469769226\":\"Symbol\",\"469769242\":[8226],\"469777803\":\"left\",\"469777804\":\"\uf0b7\",\"469777815\":\"hybridMultilevel\"}\" data-aria-level=\"1\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"4\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\">Freedom to experiment, move fast, and push the boundaries of what LLMs can do. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <strong>San Francisco, CA (Hybrid\/On\u2011site preferred)<\/strong> <br \/> <strong>Founding Team * Full\u2011Time<\/strong> <br \/> <strong>$250,000-$300,000 salary + equity<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p><img src=https:\/\/counter.adcourier.com\/RGFuaWVsU3RvY2t3ZWxsLjY5MTE0LjEzMTk3QGhhcm5oYW1zZWFyY2guYXBsaXRyYWsuY29t.gif><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a id=\"otherId\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/EB8CDD1A-D1D1-4F13-3BD8-08D5DC096EA6\">To Apply for this Job Click Here<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_promoted":"","_job_location":"San Francisco, California","_application":"","_company_name":"Harnham","_company_website":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/","_company_tagline":"","_company_twitter":"","_company_video":"","_filled":0,"_featured":0,"_remote_position":0,"_job_salary":"","_job_salary_currency":"","_job_salary_unit":""},"job-categories":[921],"job-types":[60],"class_list":{"0":"post-197257","1":"job_listing","2":"type-job_listing","3":"status-publish","4":"hentry","6":"job-type-permanent"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Harnham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-10T00:05:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Harnham.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California","description":"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California","og_description":"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California","og_url":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/","og_site_name":"Harnham","article_modified_time":"2026-03-10T00:05:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":200,"height":200,"url":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Harnham.gif","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/","url":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/","name":"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-03-03T14:04:46+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-10T00:05:21+00:00","description":"Founding AI Engineer San Francisco, California","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-founding-ai-engineer-san-francisco-california\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Founding AI Engineer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/","name":"Harnham","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/#organization","name":"Harnham","url":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/harnham-squarelogo-1522068491765.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/harnham-squarelogo-1522068491765.png","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"Harnham"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/job-listings\/197257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/job-listings"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/job_listing"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"job_listing_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/job-categories?post=197257"},{"taxonomy":"job_listing_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/job-types?post=197257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}