Founding Engineer

Company Overview

Unbound is changing how AI gets consumed in enterprises. Founded in 2023 and proudly backed by Y Combinator (Summer 2024) and top-tier venture capitalists, Unbound is on a mission to unlock the power of generative AI inside organizations — safely. The company addresses a pressing issue as 1 in 4 enterprises has banned generative AI applications entirely, while over 55% of AI prompts contain sensitive or personally identifiable information. Unbound’s platform integrates seamlessly with popular AI copilots and enterprise tools to provide real-time monitoring, automated redaction of sensitive data, and intelligent routing of queries to secure, self-hosted models.

Job Summary

As a Founding Engineer at Unbound, you will be one of the earliest technical hires, significantly shaping the product, engineering culture, architecture, and technical direction of the company. This role is predominantly hands-on, focused on coding, building systems, and shipping features while working directly with the founders in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Hands-On Coding: Spend most of your time writing, reviewing, and owning code across the full product stack — from backend systems to frontend interfaces and cloud infrastructure.
• Build Systems and Cloud Infrastructure: Design, build, and scale the backend systems and cloud infrastructure for Unbound's platform, including secure integrations with major AI providers like OpenAI and Google Vertex AI.
• Define Technical Strategy and Culture: Collaborate with the founding team to establish Unbound's technical roadmap and set engineering practices and standards for future scalability.
• Proactive Problem Solving: Identify issues and actively drive their resolution without waiting for guidance.
• Fast-Paced, Lean Development: Embrace rapid iteration practices—shipping, testing, learning, and improving efficiently.
• Quality and Foresight: Anticipate potential edge cases and second-order effects, prioritizing the quality of deliverables.

Qualifications

• Founder Mindset: Experience as a founder, seriously considering it, or possessing a similar outlook.
• Excellent Coding Skills: Proficient in AI-augmented productivity while retaining control over outcomes.
• Experience with Complex Systems: Proven track record in building complex systems from scratch.
• Cloud Infrastructure Experience: Solid understanding of cloud infrastructure design, deployment, and scaling.
• AI Stack Knowledge: Familiarity with AI technologies or a keen willingness to learn rapidly.
• End-to-End Feature Ownership: Comfortable managing features from design through to deployment and monitoring.
• Strong Communication Skills: Ability to articulate technical trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Skills

• Familiarity with the following technologies:
  • Core: Python, Node.js, Next.js
  • AI Platforms: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Vertex AI
  • Infrastructure: Azure, Kubernetes (K8s)

Experience

Experience as a founder or relevant experience in a startup environment is preferred, along with expertise in technology development and deployment.

Environment

The position is based in Pune and embraces an async-first, low-meeting engineering culture aimed at maximizing productivity and innovation.

Salary

Salary details have not been specified.

Growth Opportunities

This role serves as a launchpad for potential founders and offers high ownership and impact from day one, contributing directly to real enterprise customer solutions.

Benefits

While specific benefits are not mentioned, the role includes competitive compensation and meaningful equity, reflective of the company's startup status.