Job Title: Founding Engineer Company Name: Equi Job Details: Salary,not,providedDockerTypeScriptGCPPythonGraphQLPostgresNext.jsSenior,and,Expert,levelNew,YorkRemote,from,US Job Url: https://app.welcometothejungle.com/jobs/K312mMWn?theme=preferred-sector§or-id=9 Job Description: Role Who you are Experience: 5+ years of professional experience in software development, demonstrating progressive responsibility and impact Passion for investing: Experience can’t substitute for an innate curiosity and passion for the world of investing. We operate in the depths of it, so you better love it! Full-Stack Proficiency: Proven track record of designing, building, deploying, operating, and maintaining complex full-stack web applications in production environments. Strong proficiency in Typescript, Next.js, and Python Data & Cloud Foundation: Solid understanding of data pipeline concepts (ETL/ELT) and data warehousing principles AI-Driven Engineering: Competent in AI-driven engineering workflows and can use them to deliver effectively; experience building AI-powered applications Product Acumen: Demonstrated ability to think critically about product strategy, understand user needs and pain points, and effectively translate them into technical solutions Autonomy & Action Orientation: Proven ability to work independently with minimal supervision, navigate ambiguity effectively, and drive projects to completion with a strong sense of ownership and a bias for action Collaboration & Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences Leadership Potential: Desire and ability to eventually grow and lead a small, high-performing engineering team Desirable Prior experience working in fintech, investment technology, or financial services Specific experience designing and scaling large-volume data pipelines or complex distributed systems on GCP Experience using containerization technologies like Docker and API middleware like GraphQL Familiarity with advanced data modeling techniques Experience with RAG systems, LLM integration, or AI agent development Defining Our Ideal Candidate: Key Traits in Action Beyond technical skills, we seek engineers who embody specific traits that are crucial to our culture and success. These qualities are interconnected and define how we approach building impactful products What the job involves Equi is seeking a Founding Engineer and Head of Applied AI to serve as the lead builder across the entire company This is a foundational leadership role where you'll design and build the software solutions that accelerate Equi's growth, working across the investment team, operations, and go-to-market You will be the backbone of engineering at Equi, driving projects from ideation through execution across AI-powered systems, customer-facing applications, and internal tools This role sits at the intersection of AI engineering and application development: you'll build RAG-based intelligence, automate complex investment workflows, and create new customer-facing applications on top of our data infrastructure This is a rare opportunity for someone fascinated by sophisticated investment strategies who wants to build technology that powers a rapidly scaling platform The role will evolve from hands-on building to eventually growing and leading the engineering team, while maintaining our vision of a small, flat organization where everyone stays close to the work Lead Builder Across the Company: Serve as the primary engineer and technical leader, building software solutions that accelerate growth across all teams Partner directly with the Investment Team, Operations, and GTM to identify high-impact opportunities for technology and automation Exercise significant autonomy, taking ownership of complex projects from conception through post-launch iteration Make critical technical decisions and architect scalable solutions for a growing platform Customer-Facing Applications: Translate complex user needs and business requirements into well-architected, scalable, maintainable, and user-friendly full-stack applications (Typescript, Next.js, Python, Postgres on GCP) Design, implement, and maintain performant and reliable APIs and backend services Develop exceptional user experiences for clients and partners AI Engineering: Ingest multi-format investment data and parse it into both human- and computer-digestible formats Use AI to perform investment analysis and provide recommendations to the human investment team Build workflows to automate human actions across the investment process Develop RAG-based intelligence systems to power internal and external applications Team Leadership & Growth: Act as the backbone of the engineering function, establishing technical direction and best practices Lead technical decision-making and architectural design discussions Proactively identify and advocate for process improvements and technology adoption Eventually grow and lead the engineering team while maintaining hands-on building responsibilities Share this job Report a problem with this job Hide company View 1 more job at Equi Insights Top investors Glassdoor (4.1) Company Company benefits Health insurance, including dental and vision plans Learning and development budget Flexible holidays and a generous time off policy Funding (2 rounds) Oct 2022 $15m SERIES A Mar 2022 $10m SEED Total funding: $25m Our take When investing, individuals tend towards passive indexes of stocks and bonds, but the wealthy elite rely on complex portfolios of alternative investments – which is where they make most of their returns. These portfolios rely on teams of skilled investment professionals and carry large operating expenses, making them inaccessible to the average investor. Equi uses technology to mimic these teams, providing access to portfolios of diverse and typically inaccessible investments for individuals to make the most of their money. Equi was founded in 2020 in response to the lack of diversified portfolios for the average investor. Its original product still required significant funds, with a minimum investment of $1 million, but the company has reduced this by over half to $350k. With this change, the company now caters for all accredited investors, which represent roughly 1 in 10 households in the US. Its ultimate goal is to present portfolios for all individual investors. Past funding raised by Equi went towards the reduction in minimum investment, and it can be expected that further rounds would also contribute towards its goal of providing alternative investment access for everyone. Its flagship portfolio boasts an impressive annual target return between 17 and 23% and the company received significant investment over 2022, though only time can tell whether Equi can continue to deliver such high returns across long periods. Kirsty Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle