Founding Engineer / Tech Lead - Kosmc AI

Kosmc AI is social commerce infrastructure for D2C Brands and Creators - Chat Automation (AI Agents across Instagram/WhatsApp/Messenger), Social Storefronts, CollabX (creator-brand attribution), and AI Shopping Concierge. We're an Official Meta Tech Provider and Shopify Business Partner, live across India, UAE, USA, Brazil, UK, and Indonesia, with brands like Libas, Neemans, Bacca Bucci, and Conscious Chemist etc already on the platform.

We need one person who can own engineering end to end — not a ticket-taker.

You'll run point on our stack (Next.js/React, Node + TypeScript, PostgreSQL/Prisma, Redis, AWS), ship AI Agent features that actually understand creator/brand intent, and make the calls a CTO would make.

This is not a figure out your own hours, ship when you feel like it role.

We move fast, we ship daily, and we expect the person in this seat to set the standard, not need one enforced on them.

A note on timing: If you're at a big company right now, watching AI quietly shrink your team and wondering if you're next - this role is the opposite. You won't be replaced by AI here. You'll be the one building it, with real ownership you won't get anywhere else right now.

• Architecture and delivery across our existing product suite (Chat Automation, Social Storefronts, CollabX, AI Concierge)
• AI strategy ownership for every AI feature, deciding whether it needs a fine-tuned, self-hosted open-source model (Llama, Mistral, etc.) or a system built on top of commercial APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic) and why
• Fine-tuning and hosting our own models where it matters, real training work, real infrastructure, full control, not just prompting someone else's model
• Deep systems on commercial LLM APIs where that's the right call - fine-tuning via their APIs, heavy RAG and knowledge-base architecture, custom orchestration. Still real engineering, not prompt-and-ship
• AI Agents that understand real intent, the architecture, the training, the testing to make sure they actually work, all owned by you
• Meta Graph API, WhatsApp Business API, and Shopify integration work (webhooks, attribution, rate limits - real production complexity, not tutorials)
• Technical decisions end-to-end: what we build, how we build it, what we say no to
• Setting engineering process and hygiene from scratch - because right now there isn't any
• Compliance accountability for everything we ship - knowing which feature or data flow triggers which obligation (GDPR, India's DPDP Act, and equivalents in the markets we operate in: UAE, US, Brazil, UK, Indonesia) and building for it before release, not patching after.

• 5+ years shipping production software - not a newbie, not a bootcamp portfolio
• Real, hands-on AI/LLM experience - you've built something that uses AI in production, not just called an API once
• Fluent across our stack or close enough to be dangerous in week one: React/Next.js, Node/TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Redis, AWS
• You've worked at a startup before and know what no safety net actually means
• You understand data compliance as an engineering problem, not legal's job - you know when a feature touches PII, cross-border data, or messaging consent, and which regime (GDPR, DPDP Act, etc.) that triggers, before it ships
• You're hungry - this is a founding-level seat with a real path to CTO, and you want to earn it, not inherit it

• You lead tech. Full stop. No committee, no legacy codebase politics — you shape it.
• Direct access to the founder, real equity, and real ownership over architecture, process, and delivery from day one
• A genuine shot at CTO — if you're delivering at a high bar, that title and scope is yours to earn. Timeline and terms are part of the offer conversation, not a public promise.
• A product with actual paying enterprise clients, not a pre-revenue fantasy

We're early-stage and cash-conscious. This is not a role with a big guaranteed paycheck, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. If a large fixed number is what you need right now, this isn't the right seat for you.

• Base: Modest and fixed - covers your baseline. It's not the reason to take this job.
• Performance Bonus: Tied to a KRA scorecard we build together early on - paid against work that's shipped and verified in production, not work that's claimed done.
• Equity: Real, but earned over a defined performance window before anything is formalized. Exact terms are part of the offer, not this post.
• Getting to know each other first: Depending on your availability, we'll either run a short paid trial on real, scoped work, or a technical deep-dive plus reference checks - so both sides know it's a fit before committing further.
• Check-ins: Structured, written reviews early on so you always know where you stand.

This is a bet on upside, not a safe paycheck. Full compensation structure, vesting terms, and notice periods are detailed in the formal offer letter - this post is a summary, not a contract.

If that trade isn't what you want right now, this role will frustrate you.

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