Founding Engineer ($130K - $170K + Equity) at Arzana

This is a job that Jill, our AI Recruiter, is recruiting for on behalf of one of our customers.

She will pick the best candidates from Jack's network.

The next step is to speak to Jack.

Job Title

Founding Engineer

Salary

$130K - $170K \+ Equity

Company Description

Arzana is a YC P26 startup building the autonomous operating system for US manufacturers, integrating AI agents into an ERP back-office to automate quoting, ordering, and logistics.

Job Description

As a Founding Engineer at Arzana, you will build agentic pipelines that automate critical manufacturing workflows. You’ll develop multi-step VLM and RAG systems to process terabytes of customer data, working directly with the founders to transform legacy industrial processes into high-efficiency software systems in an intense, high-growth, 75% MoM growth environment.

Location

San Francisco, USA

Why this role is remarkable

• Join a YC P26 company growing 75% month-over-month, tackling the massive technical challenge of automating US manufacturing at scale.
• Work on a cutting-edge stack involving VLM extraction from CAD files, gradient-walk prompt optimization, and complex multi-agent reasoning systems.
• Experience true founding-level ownership with the ability to influence product direction, architecture, and team culture from day one alongside the CEO.

What You Will Do

• Architect and deploy multi-step agentic pipelines using Python, Supabase, and GCP to automate complex back-office manufacturing tasks and external integrations.
• Develop RAG systems and VLM extraction tools to process TB-scale data, including CAD files, PDFs, and ERP exports for autonomous onboarding.
• Collaborate directly with the CEO to define the product roadmap and translate human business workflows into reliable chains of extraction and action.

The ideal candidate

• Strong engineering fundamentals with experience (or strong interest) in taking agent-based products or LLM workflows from prototype to production.
• Resilient, high-ownership mindset comfortable with a 70-80 hour work week and an intense 6-day in-person schedule in San Francisco.
• US Citizenship is strictly required due to ITAR compliance, ideally with a background in manufacturing environments or complex system integrations.

Who are Jack \& Jill?

Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.

And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.

How does this work?

• Jack's an AI agent for job searching and career coaching. He works for you.
• Jill is the AI recruiter working for the company. She recruits from Jack's network.
• If it's a match and the company wants to meet you, they'll make the intro. In the meantime, if you'd like, Jack will send you excellent alternatives.

We never post fake jobs

This isn't a trick. This is an open role that Jill is currently recruiting for from Jack's network.

Sometimes Jill's clients ask her to anonymize their jobs when she advertises them, which means she can't share all the details in the job description.

We appreciate this can make them look a bit suspect, but there isn't much we can do about it.

Give Jack a spin! You could land this role. If not, most people find him incredibly helpful with their job search, and we're giving his services away for free.