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Founding Software Engineer Location: Chicago, IL Headquarters Type: Full-time, in office Company Stage: Early-stage / startup This role is a full-time opportunity to make a meaningful impact as we continue building and scaling our business. We believe this position offers strong ownership, growth potential, and the chance to contribute directly to Autopilot’s next phase of growth. About Us — Our Mission & Vision At Autopilot, our mission is to free people up to do what they do best by automating everything else. We are building the infrastructure layer that powers autonomy in motion across the physical world — including sports, fitness, logistics, healthcare, and more. Our systems help robots move, record, deliver, train, and connect in real-world environments that have historically lacked modern tooling. Our values are simple and non-negotiable: Do Good. Have Fun. Make Money. We believe these are mutually reinforcing, and we work hard to uphold them as we grow. We move fast, operate scrappy, and care deeply about building something that works. Benefits You will be eligible to participate in company benefits and perks, which currently include: Base Salary + Annual bonus potential The total compensation range for this role is $120,000–$200,000. This range reflects total target compensation, which includes base salary and bonus potential. Where a candidate falls within the range depends on factors such as experience and skills. 100% Employer-covered Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance 401(k) — Company-administered plan Flexible PTO — Time off as needed, coordinated with your team 18 Paid Holiday Days Travel Reimbursement — Reimbursed in accordance with company policy, where role-related travel is required Team & Culture Events — Team offsites, social events, and company-sponsored activities Benefits and policies may be updated from time to time at the company’s discretion. The Role We’re looking for a Founding Software Engineer to help build Autopilot from the ground up. This is not a typical engineering role — you’ll be shaping the product, architecture, and culture of the company alongside the founding team. You’ll work across the stack and into the real world, building systems that directly power autonomous workflows, robotics deployments, and physical operations. If you want to build something that actually exists outside of a screen and you’re excited by speed, ownership, and ambiguity, this role is for you. Why This Role Massive ownership: your work will directly shape the company 0 → 1 → scale: build foundational systems from scratch, then scale them across a growing robot fleet Real-world impact: not just dashboards — infrastructure that powers robots operating in physical environments Tight feedback loops: ship fast, see it work (or break) immediately Small, elite team: no bureaucracy, just building What You’ll Do Design, build, and own our cloud infrastructure from 0 to 1 Architect and operate Kubernetes (GKE) workloads for fleet orchestration, telemetry ingestion, and real-time robot communication Build scalable backend services and data pipelines that connect software to real-world robotics Design for scale: take systems from a handful of robots to fleets across many sites Own reliability, observability, and deployment infrastructure (CI/CD, monitoring, alerting, autoscaling) Ship fast, iterate constantly, and talk directly to users Work across the stack where needed (backend, APIs, integrations, frontend) Make key technical decisions that define the company’s foundation Partner closely with Customer Support, Robot Ops, and Product Teams Solve messy, real-world problems that don’t have clean abstractions What We’re Looking For (Must Haves) Ability to work fast Proven track record of shipping production software end-to-end Startup or founding engineer experience Strong hands-on experience with GCP (e.g., GKE, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, IAM) Deep experience with Kubernetes: deploying, operating, and scaling production workloads Experience designing distributed systems and cloud architectures built to scale High ownership with a strong bias to action Thrives in ambiguity and moves independently Strong product and engineering judgment Excited to build systems that operate in messy real-world environments Able to collaborate closely with hardware, ops, and product teams 4+ years of experience Bonus Points Experience with Three.js or WebGL for 3D visualization (robot telemetry, digital twins, spatial interfaces) Experience scaling robot fleet infrastructure — telemetry, OTA updates, remote monitoring, fleet orchestration Experience with robotics, automation, or hardware-adjacent systems (ROS, edge computing, real-time messaging) Track record of shipping quickly and iterating from real usage
Here's how to pick the right one and stand out in your application.
144.883Jobs
31.687IN
81%EN
That number is real. WorkMundi's database shows 144,883 open engineer roles across the world. India has the most with 31,687 jobs, followed by the United States with 30,084. If you just finished reading one job ad and felt paralyzed by choice, you're not alone—but this scale is actually an advantage. It means you can afford to be selective.
Start by geography and language. The majority of engineer ads—117,837 of them—have the job posting text written in English. Use that as one filter, but remember: the ad text language tells you nothing about whether the role actually requires you to speak English day-to-day. Read the job description carefully. Then check which countries have the volume you're targeting. Singapore, Poland, and Australia round out the top five after India and the US.
Next, learn who's hiring. Accenture has posted 2,801 engineer roles. andurilindustries, speechify, and jobgether are also actively recruiting. If you're applying to one of these names, research their hiring patterns and interview style before you apply. That homework pays off.
When you interview, expect the question every engineer hears: 'Tell me about a time you had to debug a problem that wasn't in your job description.' Have a specific story ready—not a general one. Name the tools, the deadline pressure, and what you learned. Hiring managers listen for whether you see problem-solving as part of the role itself, not a favour.