Principal Founding Product Engineer

Pragmatike is hiring a Principal Founding Product Engineer for a remote role open to applicants in United States. It pays $200k-$400k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Pragmatike.

Level's read on this job

On Level's scale, this role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
The posting lists this role as remote.
Tools and skills the posting cites include vLLM, Triton and Tgi.
Level classifies it as a lead role.
Level lists 51 other open roles at Pragmatike.

AI in this role

Principal AI Engineer to define architecture and technical strategy for large-scale production AI systems and inference workloads.

vllmtritontgicudakubernetes

ragai-agentsdistributed-systemsmodel-servinginferencellmsai-architecture

Location: United States — Remote
Compensation: $200,000–$350,000 USD
Start Date: ASAP
Languages: Fluent English required
Type: Full-time

About the Opportunity

Pragmatike is recruiting on behalf of a fast-growing technology company building critical infrastructure that powers high-volume, real-time business operations across multiple systems and platforms.

We are seeking a Principal AI Engineer to define architecture and technical strategy for highly scalable AI systems.

What You'll Do

Define architecture for large-scale AI systems.
Lead complex model serving and inference initiatives.
Optimize AI workloads across performance, quality, and cost.
Evaluate and introduce emerging AI technologies.
Establish technical standards across AI engineering.
Lead high-impact cross-functional AI initiatives.
Mentor senior and staff AI engineers.
Influence product and infrastructure strategy.

What We're Looking For

8+ years of AI/ML or software engineering experience.
Deep expertise in production AI systems.
Strong distributed systems and architecture skills.
Significant LLM and inference experience.
Strong technical leadership.
Proven ability to solve complex AI engineering problems at scale.

Nice to Have

vLLM, Triton, TGI, CUDA.
GPU optimization and distributed inference.
Kubernetes.
AI agents and RAG.
Large-scale model serving.

Why Join?

Our client is building highly scalable technology that sits at the core of critical business operations, offering engineers the opportunity to work on complex systems, large-scale integrations, and real-world technical challenges.

You'll join a collaborative, fast-moving environment where ownership is encouraged, decisions are made quickly, and engineers have meaningful influence on architecture, product direction, and engineering culture.

This role offers the opportunity to tackle challenging backend problems, work with modern technologies, and grow alongside an ambitious team building for scale.

Full benefit package and competitive compensation.

Pragmatike is committed to a fair, transparent, and inclusive recruitment process. We do not discriminate based on age, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

In accordance with GDPR, your personal data will be processed lawfully, fairly, and securely, and used solely for recruitment purposes, including sharing it with our client(s) for employment consideration. You may request access, correction, or deletion of your data at any time. We are committed to maintaining the confidentiality and security of your information throughout the recruitment process.

How we rate this

Principal Founding Product Engineer at Pragmatike rates 90 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Principal Founding Product Engineer is an open job at Pragmatike.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $200k-$400k a year.
The role is based in San Francisco and is marked remote.
The job was posted on August 14, 2026.
Seniority: lead.
Applications are handled by Pragmatike. Apply on Pragmatike

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

RAGAI agentsDistributed SystemsModel ServingInferenceLLMsAI ArchitecturevLLM

Questions you could be asked

How would you design a retrieval step so the model answers from real data instead of guessing?
How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where model serving was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where inference was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: RAG, AI agents, Distributed Systems, Model Serving, and Inference. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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