Founding ML Engineer

Location: San Francisco Bay Area (Hybrid) or Remote
Experience Level: Senior / Lead
Job Type: Full-Time

About the Role
A venture-backed startup is building the world's first live, interactive AI video avatars think FaceTime with a brain. Combining LLMs, ML-generated video, and real-time infrastructure, were redefining how people interact with machines and with each other.

We're looking for a Founding ML Engineer to own and evolve the intelligent interaction layer the part that makes conversations feel real, personalized, and emotionally aware.

What You'll Build

- An agentic orchestration layer handling memory, context-switching, and real-time intent
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines for high-fidelity, grounded responses
- Prompting frameworks optimized for real-time, emotionally intelligent conversation
- Tooling for prompt lifecycle management: versioning, testing, and observability
- Custom fine-tuning workflows for character-driven responses and identity preservation
- Seamless collaboration with design, infra, and audio/video ML teams to deliver fluid user experiences

You Might Be a Fit If You

- Have production experience with LLM-powered products, agentic systems, or RAG pipelines
- Know LangGraph, CrewAI, or have built orchestration logic from scratch
- Understand the strengths and limitations of prompt engineering
- Have worked on model evaluation or fine-tuning focused on tone, coherence, or responsiveness
- Think deeply about memory, persona, and narrative in human-AI communication
- Want to help define the emotional intelligence layer of AI

Why This Role Is Special

- Backed by top-tier investors, including Jeff Dean
- Pre-launch product with early traction, user love, and clear product-market fit
- Founding role with end-to-end influence: from infrastructure to conversational behavior
- Team includes former engineers from OpenAI, Google, and AWS
- You'll receive your own personal AI Confidant part hype man, part thought partner

Perks & Benefits

- Platinum-level health insurance (fully covered)
- 4% 401(k) match because long-term thinking matters
- Hybrid-friendly in SF Bay Area or fully remote for the right candidate
- Competitive early equity with outsized product ownership
- Fast-paced, mission-driven team that values thoughtful execution and experimentation
- Work on something weird, personal, powerful and potentially world-changing

If you're excited about creating the emotional core of human-AI interaction, and want to work at the frontier of LLMs, agents, and real-time interfaces wed love to hear from you.