Founding Engineer

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First Founding Engineer at Athena, building AI-native personalized education software. Collaborating closely with the founder on product and technical strategies.

Posted 7/28/2026full-timeRemote • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesMid-LevelSeniorWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in designing user-centric learning experiences and building AI-powered educational products. Proven ability to establish engineering architecture and standards while collaborating closely with users to refine product direction and quality.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Full Stack Software DevelopmentUser Experience DesignAI-Powered Product DevelopmentProduct ManagementEngineering Architecture

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills

Software DevelopmentAI InfrastructureLLMsEvaluation FrameworksRetrieval SystemsProduct Quality AssuranceUser Feedback IntegrationTechnical StrategyProduct ShippingAmbiguous Idea Refinement

Soft Skills

Attention to DetailIndependent OperationProduct InstinctsCollaborationUser-Centric Mindset

Industry Keywords

Education TechnologyConsumer ProductsAI-Native ProductsEarly-Stage EnvironmentsTutoring Systems

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

You'll own the following across both product and engineering:
Designing learning experiences students genuinely enjoy using
Helping every student make measurable progress through personalized, AI-powered tutoring
Defining how Athena remembers what students know and decides what they should learn next
Building the systems that measure whether students are actually learning and not just completing exercises
Establishing the engineering architecture, tooling, and standards that allow Athena to move quickly as we scale
Partnering with the founder on product direction, technical strategy, and building the engineering team

Requirements

What you’ll need

Experience building and shipping production software across multiple layers of the stack. You've built full products real customers depend on.
Strong product instincts and engineering judgment. You instinctively know when something feels unfinished.
Exceptional attention to user experience and product quality. You care about details most people never notice.
The ability to turn ambiguous ideas into polished, intuitive products.
Experience talking directly with users and incorporating feedback into product decisions. You regularly sync with users because product intuition isn't built from dashboards.
A track record of operating independently in early-stage or fast-moving environments.
AI makes you faster, not less rigorous, accelerating development without compromising quality.
You want to spend the next several years building something from zero.
Experience as an early engineer or founder (Nice to Have)
Experience building consumer products (Nice to Have)
Experience building AI-native products (Nice to Have)
Experience with LLMs, agents, retrieval systems, evaluation frameworks, or AI infrastructure (Nice to Have)
Passion for education and helping people learn (Nice to Have)

Benefits

Comp & perks

A defining role as the first engineer at an AI-native education company
Direct partnership with the founder on product and technical strategy
Competitive salary and meaningful equity
Ownership over both technical and product direction from day one
The opportunity to help define the future of personalized education