Role : Founding Architect & All-Around Engineer
Location : New York, NY.
On site. Full time.
About the job :
Advantra is partnering with a VC-backed AI startup in New York to hire a Founding Architect & All-Around Engineer to scale a functional MVP into a production-ready platform.
About the role :
You will work as the CTO's right hand, driving architecture, shipping core features, and building across backend, frontend, and AI-powered workflows. You will take ownership of the full product stack.
Responsibilities :
- Design and implement scalable backend and frontend systems.
- Build AI-powered workflows using LLMs and agentic AI tools.
- Drive architectural decisions for zero-to-one product development.
- Translate customer requirements into product features and technical solutions.
- Ship end-to-end full-stack features from prototype to production.
- Optimize system performance, reliability, and scalability.
- Collaborate closely with co-founders to define product and technical strategy.
- Troubleshoot and resolve production issues across all layers of the stack.
- Continuously explore and integrate the latest AI tools and frameworks.
Core requirements :
5+ years of professional engineering experience, ideally in startups or high-ownership roles.Full-stack engineering experience, including backend and frontend systems.Experience building and deploying production-ready applications.Deep familiarity with AI / ML systems, LLMs, and agentic workflows.Strong knowledge of prompting, embeddings, context windows, and RAG strategies.Proven ability to ship end-to-end products quickly and reliably.Experience making architectural decisions balancing speed and long-term scalability.Comfort with ambiguity and high-ownership, high-stakes problem-solving.Strong communication skills for collaborating with customers and co-founders.Track record of building systems used by enterprise clients preferred.Nice to have :
Hands-on experience with OpenAI, Claude, LangChain, or similar frameworks.Exposure to Fortune 500 or enterprise workflows.Familiarity with observability, reliability, and incident management systems.Experience with agentic AI or autonomous systems.Knowledge of cloud infrastructure and CI / CD pipelines.How to apply :
Email careers@theadvantra.com with links to shipped work and a short note on what you owned. Company name shared after the intro.
About Us :
Advantra-Upstart Crew is a search program inside Advantra Consulting. We partner with early stage and high growth startups to hire the top 2% in Tech and GTM. We run end to end searches, from single role headhunts to full team build outs, using domain experts and a vetted network to deliver tight shortlists. We stay close to founders and candidates so the relationship lasts beyond the first hire.