Founding AI Engineer

The foundation of the modern global economy is built on a dense network of counterparty trust and risk. In the past 50 years, companies have evolved from relying on a couple of wholesalers and vendors, to utilizing 100+ SaaS vendors, contract partners, and cloud providers. Since each counterparty has their own idiosyncratic internal processes and risk profiles, businesses end up spending millions of dollars and countless man-hours conducting due diligence.

Coverbase’s mission is to streamline this business-to-business assessment, reducing human toil, and allowing organizations to work together safely and reliably. We employ modern AI techniques to organize vast amounts of unstructured data and compare them against policies to identify key risks to the business.

We already serve customers across Fortune 500 companies in insurance, higher education, and finance — including five of the top 25 banks in the US.

Our proven leadership team brings deep experience:

• Clarence (CEO): Co-founder & former CTO of Unit21, a Series C fraud detection company that has raised ~$92M.

• Kao (CTO): Previously led the Stripe engineering team that launched Banking-as-a-Service.
  

We’ve raised $20M from world-class investors and our team of 12 have built important products at Google, Mapbox and Waymo.

We’re seeking an AI Engineer to develop core AI features that power an AI-native product. We’re looking for:

• Impact-driven individuals who take pride in shipping delightful products, not just exploring intellectually interesting problems.

• Teammates who care deeply about both their work and the people around them — building a culture that’s as kind as it is talented.
  

You’ll take on some subset of the following:

• Build LLM features from ideation to production, including scaling.

• Develop benchmarks to evaluate LLM performance and mitigate hallucinations.

• Own the full development lifecycle, including infrastructure and front-end work around AI features.

• Foster a constructive environment through code reviews, mentoring, and knowledge sharing.
  

• Experience developing LLM applications.

• Background in rigorous, quantitative work (e.g., PhD-level research, machine learning modeling, or advanced data science projects).

• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, early-stage startup environment. While AI is central, this is not a 100% AI role — versatility across the stack is important.

• High standards for code quality.
  

• Strong Product, Clear Demand
  Our AI-driven platform is transforming third-party risk management (TPRM) for top financial institutions. Customers describe it as “revolutionary” and “a joy to work with.” We’re just getting started.

  • “This is a revolutionary product… Coverbase is the single biggest step forward in TPRM I’ve seen in my career.”

  • “You’re flipping the entire program upside down, we completed the risk assessment in 1.5 days… would otherwise have taken at least 3 weeks.”

  • “Love how responsive you are, it’s been a joy to work with you guys.”

• Early-Stage Impact
  Rare opportunity to shape the trajectory of a company at the forefront of AI innovation. Your work will directly influence our success and growth.

• Collaborative Team
  Join a tight-knit, mission-driven group that values kindness, creativity, and curiosity as much as expertise. You’ll work closely with the founders and exceptional engineers.
  

• $140K – $220K base salary (depending on experience and ability)

• Meaningful founding team equity.

• Health insurance (100% employee / 80% dependents).

• 21 days PTO.

• In-person gatherings within the U.S. (travel covered) every 3-5 months. We’ll give plenty of notice for it, and cover flights and accommodation. We expect you to attend!

• 401(k) with 4% matching.

Location: San Francisco, Hybrid
Reports to: CTO, Co-Founder

Coverbase Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.