Lead AI and Full Stack Engineer / Technical Co-Founder

Lead AI & Full-Stack Engineer — Co-Founder Position: Lead AI & Full-Stack Engineer / Technical Co-Founder Type: Co-Founder Partnership Opportunity — Not a Paid or Salaried Position Experience: 7+ Years Location: Remote About Owlera Owlera is an AI-powered career platform designed to help students and early-career professionals gain real-world experience, prove their abilities, and become ready for a rapidly changing job market. Through virtual simulated work experiences, users work on realistic company projects and missions, interact with AI-powered managers, receive feedback and evaluation, and build evidence of what they can actually do. For employers, Owlera provides a new way to develop, evaluate, and identify talent based on real performance rather than resumes alone. About the Opportunity We’re looking for an experienced Lead AI & Full-Stack Engineer to join Owlera as a Technical Co-Founder and take significant ownership of the technology and product. This is not a traditional engineering job. You’ll work directly with the founder to shape the technical direction of Owlera, build and scale the platform, develop its AI capabilities, and eventually help build and lead the engineering organization. We’re looking for someone who is still a hands-on builder, not only a technical manager. What You’ll Do * Architect and develop Owlera’s full-stack web platform across frontend and backend. * Build scalable APIs, databases, authentication, and core platform infrastructure. * Design and integrate AI-powered product features using modern LLMs. * Build AI agents and agentic workflows capable of using tools, APIs, company data, and multi-step reasoning. * Develop systems involving RAG, embeddings, vector databases, structured outputs, memory/context, and tool/function calling. * Integrate third-party platforms, APIs, and AI services. * Make key decisions around architecture, infrastructure, security, performance, reliability, and scalability. * Rapidly prototype and test new AI/product concepts. * Take features from idea → architecture → development → deployment → iteration. * Establish engineering standards and technical best practices. * Help define the long-term technology roadmap. * Build and eventually lead Owlera’s engineering team as the company grows. What We’re Looking For * 7+ years of professional software engineering experience. * Strong experience across both frontend and backend development. * Proven ability to build complete, production-ready web applications. * Strong experience with technologies such as React, Next.js, JavaScript/TypeScript, Node.js, and/or Python. * Strong knowledge of APIs, databases, authentication, cloud infrastructure, and system architecture. * Hands-on experience integrating LLMs and generative AI into real applications. * Experience building AI agents, AI-powered workflows, or autonomous/semi-autonomous systems. * Understanding of RAG, embeddings, vector databases, tool calling, structured outputs, and AI application architecture. * Experience with deployment, cloud infrastructure, performance optimization, and scaling. * Ability to independently turn product ideas into working technical solutions. * Strong product thinking and problem-solving ability. * Startup or early-stage product experience is highly preferred. * Entrepreneurial mindset and interest in building a company for the long term. Important: This Is a Co-Founder Position This is a co-founder partnership opportunity, not a paid or salaried employment position. We’re looking for someone who wants to become a core part of Owlera, take meaningful technical ownership, and help build the company and product for the long term. If you’re an experienced engineer who wants more than another engineering role—and you’re interested in building an AI company from the ground up as a technical co-founder—we’d love to connect.