Founding Engineer

Short non-ai description for human readers:

Short non-ai description for human readers:

You will be joining a team of kind, smart, and highly motivated individuals that love to build cool stuff.

We are on a mission to create an S-tier observability stack that enables a virtuous flywheel for our customers.

If you like to build full stack apps, want to wear lots of hats, and work on bleeding edge tech this is the role for you! We are completely in person, in SF downtown, right on Pine street.

Why this opportunity is awesome: We do weekly team lunches, monthly hackathons, other team building activities, and our office is a revolving door with some of the most influential people in Silicon Valley.

What we are looking for:

• Experience building full stack apps with TypeScript

• At least 3 years of experience working on a technical team

• Deeply familiar with or experienced in the LLM space. Passion about AI development is a must!

Key Responsibilities

• Own Projects End-to-End: Take responsibility for features and systems, from ideation to deployment and beyond.

• Deployment and Operations: Manage and streamline deployment processes to ensure smooth operations and reliability.

• Collaborate and Contribute: We are a small team that is eager to help each other out, from small first-day-on-the-job questions to helping each other architect complex systems.

• Engage with the Community: Actively gather feedback, foster contributions, and improve the developer experience based on real-world insights.

Tech Stack:

• Languages: TypeScript, Python

• Frontend services (NextJS/React/ShadCN/Tailwind)

• Backend services (Express)

• Serverless functions (Cloudflare Workers)

• OLTP+OLAP databases (Supabase + ClickHouse)

• Object storage (Minio)

• Queues (SQS)

• Cloud providers: AWS, Vercel, Cloudflare

• Orchestration and Infrastructure: Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker

Below is longer mostly AI-written description (:

As a Founding Engineer at Helicone.ai, you’ll work side-by-side with the founders and a passionate team to build highly scalable systems and own end-to-end engineering projects that redefine the LLM developer experience. This is a unique opportunity to be part of a founding team, shape a product from the ground up, and make an outsized impact on the future of AI observability.

This is more than just a role—it's an opportunity to build something transformative at the ground level. You’ll be joining a tight-knit, ambitious team in San Francisco, the heart of AI innovation, and contributing to the leading platform for LLM observability.

• Ownership and Impact: Your work will directly shape the platform, the team, and the company’s future.

• Dynamic Culture: Weekly team lunches, monthly hackathons, and an environment where every idea is heard.

• Growth Opportunity: Work on cutting-edge problems in AI, learn from the founders, and develop skills that push the boundaries of engineering.

If you’re looking for a challenging, impactful role where you can grow alongside a team that’s redefining observability for AI, we’d love to hear from you.

• Build Features: Design and implement new software features that enhance Helicone’s platform and developer experience.

• Develop and Maintain Backend Services

  • Frontend services (NextJS/Tailwind)

  • Proxy worker (Wrangler/Cloudflare)

  • Application database (Supabase)

  • Analytics database (ClickHouse)

  • Backend Services (Expres/AWS ECS)

  • Queue (Kafka)

• Own Projects End-to-End: Take responsibility for features and systems, from ideation to deployment and beyond.

• Deployment and Operations: Manage and streamline deployment processes to ensure smooth operations.

• Collaborate and Contribute: Work on feature requests, integrations, and documentation improvements to enhance usability.

• Engage with the Community: Actively gather feedback, foster contributions, and improve the developer experience based on real-world insights.

• Proficiency in TypeScript: With 91% of Helicone's codebase in TypeScript, deep experience is essential.

• Experience with SQL or Similar: Strong database skills for working with ClickHouse, Supabase, and Postgres.

• Cloud Services Expertise: Familiarity with cloud deployment workflows; experience with Cloudflare is a plus.

• Problem-Solving and Communication: A clear thinker who can break down complex problems and communicate effectively.

• Adaptability: A fast learner who thrives in a dynamic environment with evolving challenges.

• AI Awareness: Solid understanding of LLMs and the current AI landscape.

• Helicone Familiarity: Must have tried the platform at least once—your hands-on experience will be invaluable.

• Languages: TypeScript, Python

• Frameworks: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Express, ShadCN

• Hosting: Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Vercel, Supabase

• Services: Docker, Postgres, ClickHouse, Cloudflare Workers, Redis

• Developer Tools: Unix, CLI, git

• LLMs: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, TogetherAI, and more