Founding Engineer - Forward Deployed
San Francisco · Full Time (In Person) · $150K - $200K
Apply NowOverstand Labs (YC W25) is building the on-demand data team for modern companies — pulling together everything a business knows so it can answer questions, validate ideas, and automate actions confidently.
We do this by working directly with customers. We embed with teams, understand their operations, and turn messy internal data into AI-powered workflows that solve real, business-critical problems.
We're looking for a Founding Engineer to work directly with customers, and build the product. If you thrive at the intersection of technical depth and customer impact, we'd like to invite you to Apply Now.
What You'll Do
- • Be deeply customer-facing: work directly with customers to understand how their business actually runs and translate unclear problems into concrete technical solutions.
- • Build production-grade systems across AI pipelines, backend services, data infrastructure, and product surfaces.
- • Work end-to-end using PySpark, Python (FastAPI), and TypeScript (Next.js) — from data foundations and APIs to user-facing product experiences.
- • Operate with high autonomy in a fast-moving environment, while staying closely aligned with the founders.
- • As an early hire, help shape engineering standards, culture, and the technical direction of the company.
Who This Is For
This role is explicitly customer-facing. If you don't enjoy talking to customers, asking questions, and working through ambiguity with real users, this role is not a fit.
You're likely a great fit if you:
- • Have experience in a high-ownership engineering environment
- • Enjoy ambiguous problem spaces and end-to-end ownership
- • Care about shipping quickly and building systems that hold up in production
Technical Requirements
- • Frontend — expert in React/Next.js, TypeScript
- • Backend — expert in Python / FastAPI or Flask, as well as pipelining DSLs like PySpark, Polars or Pandas