Founding Software Engineer

Company Description XSIS builds practical AI solutions that solve complex business problems for global enterprises today. The company specializes in semantic intelligence, enterprise-grade AI development, and industry-specific solutions across sectors such as Finance, Healthcare, Retail, and Logistics. XSIS focuses on delivering measurable ROI by aligning AI initiatives with strategic business goals, improving efficiency, unlocking insights, and transforming customer experiences. With deep expertise in NLP, machine learning, and modern AI architectures, XSIS provides full-cycle delivery from strategy and design to deployment and optimization. The organization is committed to responsible, ethical, and transparent AI practices that turn AI ambition into operational reality. Role Description: We are looking for the engineer who will own how those systems get built — and who will become a partner in the company rather than an employee of it. A partnership is a long relationship, and we would rather begin it across a table than over video. What you would own Scoping work with clients: turning a vague business problem into something buildable and worth buildingArchitecture and technology decisions across the whole system, not one layer of itBuilding the thing, including the AI components: retrieval, evaluation, cost and latency, and the failure modes that decide whether a system survives productionDeployment, including on-premise and in-country deployments where client data cannot legally leave the jurisdictionWhat happens after launch: monitoring, failures, the changes that real use demands You would not be starting from scratch. We have already built EBS, our Enterprise Business Solutions platform, and it is roughly 60% complete. Finishing it, deciding where it goes next, and building client work on top of it is a significant part of this role. There is a real codebase waiting, not a blank repository and a pitch deck. What we need from youEssential You have taken at least one system from a conversation to production, alone or nearly alone, and lived with it afterwards. We will ask what broke after launch and what you would design differently now.You deploy as well as you build: cloud infrastructure, networking, environments, monitoring. Comfort with on-premise or in-country deployment is a significant plus.You have put AI into production, not into a demo. You know how to measure whether an AI system actually works, not just whether it returns something.You can sit in front of a client. You can run a scoping conversation, push back on a bad idea, and explain a technical trade-off to someone non-technical.You know what not to build. With a small team and no outside funding, the ability to argue for the smaller solution is worth more than the ability to build the larger one.Counts for a lot You have freelanced, consulted or founded something, so you have priced work, handled scope creep and talked to clients about moneySecurity and compliance are part of how you design, not someone else's problem: data residency, access control, audit trailsYou write clearly. Proposals and technical documents for clients are part of this job.You can lead other people's work: briefing an engineer or an outside firm, reviewing what comes back, and being accountable for itYou use AI seriously in your own work — for planning, architecture and writing code. We care how well you work with these tools, not whether you avoid them.What this role is not Not a role where requirements arrive finished. If you want a defined scope handed to you, you will be unhappy here.Not a web application role. If "full stack" has meant building CRUD applications, the AI and deployment parts of this job will be a bigger jump than it looks.Not a job with a salary. See the next section, which we have written plainly rather than optimistically.What we offer, stated plainlyEquity in Kong Group, vesting over four years with a one-year cliff, plus a share of the profit on every deal you help close and deliver. There is no salary. We would rather say that clearly at the top than have you discover it in the third conversation. What that means honestly: you are taking founder risk. Kong Group is early, the equity is worth nothing today, and what it becomes depends on work none of us has done yet. The deal share is the part that can pay you in the near term, and it is real — but it starts when deals close, not when you start. What you get in exchange for that risk: A third of the decisions in a company, not a seat in someone else's structureTechnical ownership from the first client conversation to production, which is difficult to find at any salaryWork that is genuinely hard: applied AI, regulated deployment, systems that have to survive an auditIf equity-only does not work for you, say so rather than walking away. For the right person we would consider a paid project engagement first, with the partnership conversation after a delivery we have both seen go well. That is often the more sensible order for everyone. Exact equity percentage and the deal-share formula are open to discussion and will be agreed in writing before anyone starts. How to applySend us one email to (habdelmalek@xsis.xyz) with: One system you owned end to end. What the client or user needed, what you decided, what you built, and what happened after it went live. Two or three paragraphs is plenty — we care about the decisions, not the stack list.Something we can look at. Code, a repository, a running system, a technical write-up. Whatever shows how you think.Whether you are in Montreal or moving here, and when you could meet.What you need to make this work. If equity-only is not viable for you, tell us in this email rather than at the end of the process.No cover letter and no CV formatting required. How the process runs Coffee in Montreal, about an hour. Mostly about systems you have built and decisions you have made.A short technical discussion on a problem from our actual pipeline, not a puzzle exercise.A small paid project, one to two weeks. Real work, paid in cash. This is how both sides find out what working together is like before anyone signs a partnership agreement.If that goes well, we agree terms in writing and you start.We will tell you where you stand at each step, including when the answer is no.