Founding AI Engineer
Quick facts
- Pay
- $175,000–$220,000 base + competitive equity
- Type
- Full-time
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
- Skills
- Python
- Industry
- Information Technology — 671 open jobs
- Visa in listing
- H-1B, OPT
- Apply
- Free to apply — never pay anyone for a job offer or visa sponsorship
Job description
Founding AI Engineer | San Francisco, CA
We’re looking for a Founding AI Engineer to join a fast-growing, seed-stage technology company building AI agents that automate IT support for small and midsized businesses.
This is an early-stage, high-ownership opportunity where you’ll work closely with the founding team and help build products across AI, infrastructure, backend, frontend, and integrations.
📍 Location: San Francisco, CA
🏢 Work Model: On-site, 5 days/week
💼 Employment: Full-time
💰 Salary: $175,000–$220,000 base + competitive equity
🎓 Experience: 2–5+ years in full-stack software engineering
What You’ll Do
- Build and improve AI agents that investigate and resolve IT support issues.
- Develop and scale distributed infrastructure to support reliability and growing demand.
- Build product features across frontend, backend, APIs, and third-party integrations.
- Work closely with the founding team to prioritize and ship solutions quickly.
- Use customer feedback to improve the product and solve real-world technical problems.
- Contribute across the full technology stack and take ownership of projects from concept through deployment.
- Potentially interact directly with customers to understand technical challenges and help shape the product.
What We’re Looking For
- 2–5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
- Strong full-stack engineering background.
- Experience working with Python.
- Hands-on experience with LLMs, AI agents, RAG, or prompt engineering.
- Understanding of distributed systems and scalable infrastructure.
- Experience building and integrating APIs.
- Comfortable working in an early-stage environment with significant ownership.
- Ability to move quickly, solve ambiguous problems, and work closely with a small engineering team.
Tech Stack
Python | LLMs | AI Agents | Distributed Systems | RAG | Prompt Engineering | API Integrations
Why This Opportunity?
- Join an early engineering team with significant ownership.
- Work directly with founders and have a meaningful impact on product direction.
- Build production AI agents solving real-world business problems.
- Work across AI, infrastructure, backend, frontend, and integrations.
- Competitive compensation and equity.
- Visa transfers such as OPT and H-1B transfers are supported.
If you’re excited about AI agents, full-stack engineering, and building at an early-stage startup, please reach out or apply.
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Visa sponsorship record
No public sponsorship records foundWe didn't find H-1B, H-1B1, E-3 or green card (PERM) filings under the name A4Assist in the Department of Labor and USCIS data. That doesn't mean the job can't be sponsored — the company may file under a different legal name, be new to sponsorship, or sponsor a visa that isn't in these datasets (for example H-2B or J-1).
Tip: ask the recruiter early, in writing, which visa they sponsor and whether they cover the legal and filing fees.
Which visas can work for this job
Occupation: Software Developers (SOC 15-1252).
- Mentioned in the listing
H-1B, OPT
- H-1B cap-exempt employer
Regular cap-subject employer — a new H-1B needs to win the lottery in March (unless you already hold cap-counted H-1B status).
- TN (citizens of Canada and Mexico)
This kind of role may fit the USMCA profession “Computer Systems Analyst (or Engineer, for engineering-degree holders)” — it depends on the actual duties. No lottery, no cap; you need the matching degree or license.
- E-3 (Australia) and H-1B1 (Chile, Singapore)
Same degree requirement as H-1B, but no lottery and a separate quota that is rarely filled.
- O-1 (extraordinary ability)
For candidates with awards, publications, press, a high salary or critical roles at distinguished organizations. No cap, no lottery; the employer files a petition.
- STEM OPT extension (F-1 students)
Requires an E-Verify employer. We didn't find this company in the E-Verify list — ask HR.
Salary vs prevailing wage
Level II (qualified)Software Developers · San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA. Annual prevailing wages set by the Department of Labor (OFLC).
| Level | Prevailing wage | H-1B lottery odds* |
|---|---|---|
| Level I | $137,093 | ~15% |
| Level II | $165,131 | ~31% |
| Level III | $193,149 | ~46% |
| Level IV | $221,187 | ~61% |
This job pays $175,000–$220,000 a year — that's Level II (qualified). In the wage-weighted H-1B lottery a Level II registration gets 2 entries; estimated selection chance about 31%.
* Odds are DHS projections for the FY2027 wage-weighted lottery (actual results vary by year and employer). Since the FY2027 cap season the H-1B lottery is weighted by wage level: Level I = 1 entry, II = 2, III = 3, IV = 4. The level is set by the offered wage against the prevailing wage for the occupation and worksite. Separately, a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions for workers outside the US was announced in 2025; as of September 2026 a federal court ruling keeps it unenforceable while appeals continue — check the current status.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor OFLC disclosure data (H-1B/H-1B1/E-3 LCA, PERM), OFLC prevailing wage data, USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, E-Verify participating employers. Data loaded: LCA FY2024–FY2026, PERM, USCIS Data Hub, OFLC wages; updated 2026-10-03. Employers are matched by name, so records of companies with similar names can occasionally be mixed up. This is general information, not legal advice — talk to an immigration attorney about your case.