Founding Engineer

We're hiring a Founding Engineer to own the core intelligence layer for autonomous machines at Cilium.

Cilium is building the real-time motion graph for every autonomous machine on Earth. We turn raw motion in the real world into live HD maps that autonomous vehicles, robots, and humanoids rely on to move safely and intelligently.

We're early, funded by leading global VCs and partners, and going deep on one bet: the next decade of autonomy will be bottlenecked less by models, and more by fresh, reliable, infrastructure-grade map data.

About Cilium

Autonomous systems today still depend on static, closed mapping stacks built for yesterday's use cases. We're fixing that.

Cilium is building:

• HD maps designed natively for autonomous vehicles, humanoids, and robots
• A real-time motion graph that updates as the world changes
• An infrastructure and data layer that can scale from a single city to global coverage

We're based in Bangkok with a small, high-trust hybrid team and a long-term view: build the mapping rail for the autonomous future, starting now while the market is still taking shape.

The role: Founding Engineer

You'll be one of the first technical hires and a true partner in building the product and company. This is not a feature owner role; it's a systems architect + company builder role.

You will:

• Own the technical vision and architecture of our core mapping and data platform
• Design and ship the first production versions of key systems (ingestion, processing, HD map generation, APIs)
• Build and lead the early engineering team: define standards, help hire, and mentor early teammates
• Make hard trade-offs across accuracy, latency, cost, and scalability in a real-world system
• Work directly with customers and partners to turn requirements into concrete technical roadmaps
• Interface with founders and investors to align product, roadmap, and technical strategy
• Set up engineering culture and rituals optimized for learning, velocity, and accountability
• Choose and evolve our tech stack, infra, and tooling as we scale from prototype to production

What we're looking for

This is a good fit if you see yourself in most of the below:

• 5+ years of hands-on experience, ideally as Head of Eng / Staff / Principal / early founding engineer
• Deep experience in one or more of: maps, robotics, infra, ML systems, large-scale data pipelines, geospatial systems
• Strong systems thinking: you can design, build, and debug distributed systems end-to-end
• Comfortable going from 0→1 with incomplete information and rough edges
• Proven ability to own outcomes, not just tickets — you care what ships and how it behaves in the wild
• You want real ownership (product, architecture, team), not just a nice title
• You're willing to be in Bangkok (hybrid) and lean into early-stage chaos in exchange for meaningful upside

If your ideal job is a big team, narrow scope, and a clear playbook — this isn't it.

What you'll get

• Ownership: shape the core architecture, roadmap, and early team of Cilium
• Scope: work on hard, high-leverage problems at the intersection of autonomy, maps, and infra
• Upside:
• Salary: competitive, depends on fit
• Equity: mid–high single digits, with the possibility of more for an exceptional long-term partner
• Environment: small, sharp, founder-led team that optimizes for clarity, speed, and long-term compounding, not theatre
• Impact: your work will directly influence how autonomous vehicles, robots, and humanoids perceive and move through the world

How to apply

If this resonates, DM me on LinkedIn or email [Confidential Information] with:

• Your LinkedIn and/or GitHub
• A short note on the hardest system you've ever built
• A couple of lines on what you'd want to build in the first 6 months at Cilium

If you're on the fence but feel a this might be me pull, reach out. Worst case, we have a good conversation. Best case, we build the motion graph for the autonomous future together.