Hypercubic

AI systems, enterprise software, mainframe modernization

FoundingSoftwareEngineer

$125–200k San Francisco, California, United States FULL TIME
Market Sentiment
HIGH DEMAND

Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Founding candidates.

The Brief

“Founding Software Engineer at Hypercubic. Skills: AI systems, program analysis, knowledge extraction, agentic systems, legacy application rearchitecture, system design, prototyping, productionizing AI systems. Design, prototype, and productionize AI-powered systems from first principles. Rapidly prototype new concepts and features to validate ideas before full implementation”

What You'll Achieve.

Meaningful ownership over architecture, product direction, and engineering culture; Ship AI-driven features end to end; Validate ideas before full implementation

Industry & Context.

AI systems, enterprise software, mainframe modernization
Problems you'll solve

Understand, reason about, and rearchitect large-scale legacy applications; Translate ambiguous problem statements into concrete experiments, constraints, and working systems; Low-level system reasoning; High-level product UX

Eligibility Requirements

In-person based in San Francisco, California, Unable to sponsor new H1B employment visas at this time, Can support H1B transfers and OPT

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

Founding role with meaningful ownership over architecture, product direction, and engineering culture, Fundamentals, Comfortable operating across abstraction layers, from low-level system reasoning to high-level product UX, Care deeply about your work and the product, Comfortable with uncertainty and enjoy figuring out what to build before how to build it, Think in systems and feedback loops, not just features, Can move fast and slow. Prototyping ideas in hours, then building enterprise-grade features to a high-quality bar, Want to become world-class at AI engineering, Bias for action and a track record of working in fast-paced environments with urgency

Nice to Have

Testing intuition, including TDD and property-based testing, Experience building and maintaining production-grade agentic or autonomous systems, Exposure to legacy systems (especially mainframes or COBOL), compilers, or program analysis techniques, Familiarity with enterprise software constraints

What You'll Do.

and productionize AI-powered systems from first principles

Rapidly prototype new concepts and features to validate ideas before full implementation

Ship AI-driven features end to end

from model interaction to user-facing workflows

Set early engineering standards around testing

Translate ambiguous problem statements into concrete experiments

Lead architecture decisions and long-term technical direction with the CTO

Collaborate with a highly diverse group of subject matter experts and customers from various industries

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

Work directly with the CTO; Collaborate with a highly diverse group of subject matter experts and customers from various industries

Full Job Description

The world’s most critical infrastructure—banking, airlines, utilities—is held together by millions of lines of COBOL and mainframe logic written decades ago. The engineers who built it are retiring and the documentation is fading. These systems are "too big to fail" and "too complex to change," leaving global infrastructure frozen in the 1970s. At Hypercubic, we’re building AI systems that can understand, reason about, and rearchitect large-scale legacy applications. We work at the intersection of program analysis, knowledge extraction, and agentic systems, applied to some of the most critical enterprise software in the world. Learn https://www.hypercubic.ai/insights/modernization-is-fun why we're excited about mainframe modernization. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re looking for a true generalized specialist with unusually strong technical and product taste. You will work directly with the CTO to design, prototype, and productionize AI-powered systems from first principles. This is a founding role with meaningful ownership over architecture, product direction, and engineering culture. It is suited for someone with strong fundamentals and comfortable operating across abstraction layers, from low-level system reasoning to high-level product UX. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Rapidly prototype new concepts and features to validate ideas before full implementation. - Ship AI-driven features end to end, from model interaction to user-facing workflows. - Set early engineering standards around testing, reliability, and code quality. - Translate ambiguous problem statements into concrete experiments, constraints, and working systems. - Lead architecture decisions and long-term technical direction with the CTO. - Collaborate with a highly diverse group of subject matter experts and customers from various industries (banks, insurance, airlines, and more) YOU ARE A FIT IF… - You care deeply about your work and the product. - You are comfortable with uncertainty and enjoy figuring out what to build bef

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