Senior Level Founding Engineer Jobs

About the Company

Tivena is a Boston-based, seed-funded consumer AI company building a mobile-first product at the intersection of AI, health, wellness, and behavior change.

We are currently developing our MVP and are seeking a founding technical leader to take ownership of the product following MVP handoff, drive rapid iteration, and build the engineering organization as the company grows.

Why Join

This is a rare opportunity to join a well-funded consumer AI startup at its earliest stage and help shape the future of the company from the ground up.

As a founding technical leader, you will play a central role in defining the product's technical vision, architecture, engineering culture, and long-term technology strategy. You will have meaningful equity participation, substantial autonomy, and direct influence over how the product evolves, how the team is built, and how the company scales.

We are open to Boston-based, hybrid, or remote candidates who can collaborate closely with the founding team. Candidates located in the Boston area are especially encouraged to apply.

Compensation will be tailored to experience, availability, and level of involvement. We are open to a variety of arrangements, including full-time, fractional-to-full-time, and milestone-based engagements for the right candidate.

The Role

We are seeking a Founding Tech Lead / Head of Engineering to become the long-term technical owner of the product and engineering function.

This role combines hands-on engineering, technical leadership, product thinking, and team building. Following MVP handoff, you will lead the evolution of the platform, guide key architectural decisions, and help transform an early product into a scalable consumer business.

In the near term, you should be comfortable contributing directly where needed—reviewing architecture, improving systems, working with contractors or external development teams, and helping the company move quickly from MVP to product-market validation. Over time, you will build and lead the engineering organization as the company grows.

What You Will Do

• Own and execute the product's technical roadmap following MVP handoff.
• Lead development of a mobile-first consumer AI platform.
• Drive improvements across architecture, infrastructure, reliability, security, analytics, and deployment processes.
• Partner closely with the founding team to translate user feedback into rapid product iteration.
• Design and implement AI-powered features, personalization systems, user memory, and intelligent user experiences.
• Build secure, privacy-conscious systems for handling sensitive user data.
• Evaluate and manage external developers, agencies, and technical vendors when needed.
• Recruit, mentor, and lead a high-performing engineering team.
• Establish engineering standards, workflows, and development practices that support long-term scalability.
• Balance speed, quality, cost, privacy, and scalability in a fast-moving startup environment.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone who brings:

• A track record of building and shipping consumer-facing, mobile-first products.
• Strong full-stack engineering judgment across frontend, backend, cloud infrastructure, databases, APIs, authentication, analytics, and deployment.
• Experience building AI-powered products, LLM-based applications, conversational interfaces, personalization systems, or intelligent product workflows.
• The ability to take ownership of a codebase and make pragmatic architectural decisions.
• Strong product instincts and an interest in user behavior, engagement, retention, and growth.
• Comfort operating in an ambiguous, fast-changing startup environment.
• The ability to remain hands-on while building and leading a team.
• High ownership, strong communication skills, intellectual curiosity, and a low-ego, collaborative mindset.
• The ability to work effectively with non-technical founders and translate product vision into technical execution.

Preferred Experience

Experience in one or more of the following areas would be particularly valuable:

• Consumer mobile applications.
• AI products and LLM-based systems.
• Health, wellness, coaching, habit formation, or behavior-change products.
• Privacy-sensitive product development.
• Analytics, experimentation, and A/B testing frameworks.
• Personalization, recommendation, or adaptive user experiences.
• Leading engineers, contractors, agencies, or distributed technical teams.
• Scaling products from MVP to production and growth-stage operations.

What This Role Is Not

This is neither a narrow implementation role nor a purely managerial position.

As a founding technical leader, you will be expected to contribute strategically and tactically—making architectural decisions, guiding product direction, evaluating technical tradeoffs, overseeing execution, and helping build the team and systems that support long-term growth.

Education & Background

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, AI/ML, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

We value demonstrated ability over formal credentials. Advanced degrees are welcome but not required. What matters most is a track record of building, shipping, and scaling high-quality products.

Strong candidates will typically have 8+ years of software engineering experience, including technical leadership responsibilities and experience building consumer-facing products. You should be comfortable working across mobile, backend, cloud infrastructure, and AI-enabled product systems, with a history of making sound architectural decisions and driving products from concept to production.

Compensation

Base salary range: $180,000–$240,000, depending on experience, location, and scope of responsibility.

This role includes meaningful early-stage equity, with the equity package calibrated to the candidate’s experience, expected ownership, leadership responsibilities, and overall compensation preferences.

For exceptional candidates, we are open to flexible compensation structures, including different salary-equity combinations, fractional-to-full-time arrangements, and other founding-stage partnership models.

Tivena is well-funded at the seed stage and is seeking a long-term technical leader who is excited to help shape the company’s technical direction, engineering organization, and product evolution from the earliest stages of growth.

How to Apply

Please send:

• Your resume, LinkedIn profile, or both.
• A brief note describing your interest in the role and why you believe you would be a strong fit.
• Examples of products, platforms, AI systems, or engineering teams you have built, scaled, or led.
• Your preferred working arrangement, availability, and location.

Pay: From $180,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Cambridge, MA 02138