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This is a remote position.
Senior AI/ML Engineer — Founding Technical Lead (US)
Location: US
Type:Part time
Reports to: Founder (Cullen), with technical oversight from Fractional CTO
Manages: 2–4 junior engineers / interns
About Vulcury
Vulcury is a venture studio building a portfolio of companies anchored by proprietary semantic infrastructure. Our two lead ventures are Trustbridge, a manufacturing and supply chain matchmaking platform, and Calisade, an investment research and asset management venture with a strong performance track record. We are backed by a committed lead investor and operate with a small, deliberately senior team.
This is a founding technical role. You will be the first senior engineer in the company and the day-to-day technical leader for everything we build.
The Opportunity
We are hiring one person to own the build-out of our first production product (the Trustbridge supplier app) and to grow into the senior technical anchor across the entire studio. This is not a contractor role and not a project hire. We are looking for someone who wants a long-horizon seat at a company in formation, with the range to be redeployed across multiple problem domains as the portfolio matures.
In your first six months you will ship a real product to real users. In year two you will help define the cross-portfolio data and AI infrastructure that becomes our durable competitive advantage. In year three, if things go well, you will be leading a team.
What You Will Do
Own the technical build of the first-generation Trustbridge supplier app end-to-end: architecture, model selection, agent design, inference layer, and production deployment.
Lead and mentor a team of 2–4 junior engineers and interns based in India. Set the technical bar, run code reviews, and grow the team's capability.
Translate business and product specifications into buildable technical plans. You will work directly with the founder, who owns domain logic but is not a builder.
Collaborate with our Fractional CTO (background in major financial technology) on architecture decisions and technical strategy.
Once the first-generation product is in production, help shape the cross-portfolio semantic layer that connects Trustbridge, Calisade, and future ventures.
Be redeployed, over time, to new internal products and external client engagements as the practice grows.
Who You Are
7–12 years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 3 years focused on applied ML or AI systems.
You have shipped a production ML or AI system end-to-end — not just a prototype, not just a research artifact. You can talk concretely about what broke and what you learned.
You are a generalist by temperament. You are comfortable across model selection, agent orchestration (LLM-based and otherwise), basic data engineering, and inference architecture. You do not need to be the world expert in any one of these, but you need to be competent in all of them.
You have led junior engineers before. You know how to set a technical bar without micromanaging, and you know how to grow people.
You write clearly. You can explain a technical decision to a non-technical founder without condescension and without hand-waving.
You are comfortable with ambiguity. Our first product is a discovery instrument — the requirements will evolve as real users start using it, and you need to be the kind of engineer who finds that energizing rather than frustrating.
You want to build something that lasts. You are looking for a long-term seat, not a resume line.
Nice to Have
Experience with dbt, modern data warehouse design, or feature stores.
Background in supply chain, manufacturing, financial services, or investment data.
Prior experience as a founding or early engineer at a venture-backed startup.
Experience working across time zones with US-based founders or clients.
Compensation
Competitive base salary calibrated to senior engineering roles at top-tier Indian technology companies and well-funded startups, plus meaningful equity in Vulcury Ventures LLC. Equity vests over four years with a one-year cliff. Specific numbers will be discussed with shortlisted candidates.
How to Apply
Send a short note (please, no long cover letters) to [email] explaining: (1) the most interesting production ML or AI system you have shipped and what you would do differently if you built it again, (2) what you are looking for in the next chapter of your career, and (3) one technical opinion you hold that you think most people get wrong. Attach a CV or a link to your work.
We will respond to every credible application. The interview process is four conversations: an initial call with the founder, a technical conversation with our Fractional CTO, a working session on a real problem from our roadmap, and a closing conversation on fit and compensation. We aim to move from first call to offer in three weeks for candidates we are excited about.
