Founding Engineer (AI/ML) at Clera
San Francisco, CA
$130,000–$170,000
Jul 11, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Jul 20, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A founding engineering hire at an early-stage AI-driven recruiting marketplace, this role centers on building and owning the core intelligence layer: recommendation systems, ranking algorithms, and LLM-powered candidate-to-role matching. The work spans production data pipelines and backend services integrated across the full stack, with a daily shipping cadence. It suits a generalist engineer comfortable with TypeScript, React, and LLM APIs who thrives in a scrappy, high-intensity startup setting.
Senior level · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
Pay in the description: $130,000–$170,000
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 360 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 95–470
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $190,744 (middle half $167,095–$224,501). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (5)
SOC classification is a genuine judgment call: the role is titled 'AI/ML Engineer' and emphasizes recommendation systems, ranking algorithms, and LLM-powered matching (signals toward 15-2051 Data Scientists), but the required skills are heavily full-stack (TypeScript, React, Supabase, Prisma, trigger.dev) and the posting stresses end-to-end product shipping — primary day-to-day work reads more like software development (15-1252).
No overall years-of-experience figure is stated; seniority is inferred from the scope (owning the entire AI/ML intelligence layer, production-grade architecture, founding-level role) rather than a stated minimum.
'Recommendation systems' and 'ranking algorithms' are listed as core responsibilities/requirements rather than named tools, but they represent a concrete technical capability gate for this role and are retained as required skills.
Prior startup experience and experience with recruiting/HR tech/marketplace products are listed under 'Nice to Have' and are marked as preferred accordingly.
The role is explicitly on-site in San Francisco (hackerhouse); remote=false.
Read the full posting
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