You will join as a founding hire at a SF-based startup building AI that understands 3D space natively. You will own the end-to-end experience—designing complex interaction patterns for spatial data and shipping production code in TypeScript and React. This is a high-ownership role shaping the product's 0-to-1 trajectory.
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Founding Engineer at Percept
We are looking for a rare hybrid talent to join a pre-seed spatial AI startup in San Francisco as a Founding Engineer. This isn't just a design role—you will be building the foundation model for the physical world, creating the interfaces and the code that allow humans to interact with 3D space natively. With a starting salary of $130k and meaningful founding equity, you'll have the autonomy to shape a product from its earliest stages while solving some of the hardest problems in AI and spatial computing. If you can bridge the gap between high-level design craft and production-ready engineering, this is your chance to make a definitive mark on the future of 3D intelligence.
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Location
San Francisco, United States
Compensation
$130k + Equity
Company
Percept
Role overview
Percept is building a foundation model for the physical world that reconstructs environments from any sensor, understands them at a semantic level, and simulates real-world physics through a single platform and API. It processes inputs from phone cameras to LiDAR and satellite to create metric 3D reconstructions, queryable scene graphs with centimeter-level accuracy, and structured representations of real environments.
What you will do
- Design and build the end-to-end platform experience, from spatial data interfaces to accessible developer APIs.
- Prototype and implement 3D visualization tools that help engineers and operators reason about complex physical environments.
- Work directly with founders to iterate on product-market fit, moving from initial concept to production-ready features rapidly.
Who this is a fit for
- Proven experience as a product-minded engineer with 6+ years in SaaS, capable of moving seamlessly between Figma and VS Code.
- Strong technical foundations in TypeScript and React, paired with a portfolio demonstrating mastery over complex, data-heavy workflows.
- Startup-ready mindset with a preference for high ambiguity and a desire to wear multiple hats across design and engineering.
Why this role is remarkable
- Rare opportunity to define the interface for a foundation model that processes 3D space the way LLMs process language.
- High-stakes ownership as a founding member where your design calls and code deployments directly shape the product's identity.
- Join an elite technical team in San Francisco focused on solving one of the most difficult remaining challenges in AI perception.
How Jack & Jill work together
I get to know what you’re great at, then find roles you’d never find yourself.Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.
I recruit from Jack’s network and make the intro when I spot a great match.And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.
Jack gets to know what you're great at and what you want next, then searches 15 million jobs daily and helps you discover roles at companies like this.
Meet Jack
What happens next?
Jack’s an AI agent for job searching and career coaching. He works for you.
Jill is the AI recruiter working for the company. She recruits from Jack’s network.
If your profile’s a match and Percept wants to meet, Jill will make the intro. In the meantime, Jack will send you excellent alternatives.