Software Engineer

Founding Engineer (Backend / AI )Start-up Fintech NYC Hybrid $180K–$220K If you've built real backend systems and shipped something meaningful with LLMs, this might be worth two minutes of your time. I'm working with a well-funded seed-stage startup taking a direct shot at one of the most entrenched duopolies in financial services. The product sits at the intersection of institutional investing, corporate governance, and AI — extracting intelligence from SEC filings, proxy statements, and alternative data to generate explainable, policy-aligned voting recommendations for asset managers. The founding team is exceptional. We're talking capital markets credibility at the most senior level of institutional asset management, paired with strong technical leadership. They know the industry, they know the buyers, and they've got design partners lined up. Now they need someone to help build it. The roleYou'd be one of the first engineers on the ground, working directly with the CTO. Your ownership spans: • Backend services, APIs, and data ingestion from SEC and alternative sources • The AI pipeline — RAG, inference, agentic workflows, and recommendation logic • Evaluation infrastructure to measure when the model is right, when it's wrong, and why • Architecture decisions the next several engineers will build on This is a fiduciary product. The AI has to be right, explainable, and auditable. That's what makes it interesting. What they're looking for • 3–7 years of experience, with a real track record of owning backend systems end-to-end • Strong TypeScript; Python for AI/data work is a bonus • Hands-on experience with LLM-backed systems — RAG, evals, agentic flows • That zero-to-one mindset — comfortable with ambiguity, biased toward shipping • Fintech or regtech background is a plus, not a must The setup • $180K–$220K base + equity • Hybrid NYC — no minimum office days, you own your schedule • Seed-stage, moving fast, proxy season is the forcing function If you've shipped backend systems at pace, have real LLM experience, and want to work on something genuinely niche with a team that knows exactly what it's building — drop me a message.