Founding Engineer

About

About Quill

Quill is building an agent system to ensure data reliability. Every company relies on systems of record (CRMs, ERPs) that inevitably fill with messy data, and in the age of AI it's getting worse: AI tools write slop into these systems faster than teams can clean it. That broken data breaks everything downstream. Quill restructures and links company data into a graph that agents can actually operate on, then uses its own agent system to clean data autonomously with governed, human-in-the-loop workflows. The company raised $4.5M in pre-seed funding and is well-capitalized with several years of runway. The product is live with design partners in daily active usage. Both co-founders are ex-Palantir and led functions at startups (head of engineering and head of growth, respectively); one is a second-time founder.

About the role

Quill is hiring its first founding engineers. These hires define how the product vision is built: the platform is live with initial users, and the work now is to scale it, incorporate learnings from design partners, and keep pace with every new model release. The primary responsibility is building the product, but at this stage, that means talking to customers: understanding their problems, building the solution, getting direct feedback, and monitoring usage. The right profile is a full-stack leaning backend with good product intuition. The culture is high-ownership rather than mandated hours: the team hires people who are ambitious and motivated enough that their intensity comes from personal standards, not a schedule. This is also a genuine founder-track seat: joining pre-seed and learning sales, fundraising, and company building from experienced operators.

What you'll own

• Build the core Quill platform: the data restructuring layer, company graph, and agent system
• Work directly with design partners: understand problems, ship solutions, monitor usage, iterate on direct feedback
• Make product and architecture decisions as one of the first engineers
• Keep the platform on the bleeding edge as new models are released
• Help shape engineering culture and hiring as the team grows

Requirements

Must-have

• 1-5 years of engineering experience building and shipping real products
• Full-stack capability, leaning backend (pure frontend profiles are not a fit)
• AI-native workflow: actively uses the latest AI development tools as a core part of how they build
• Exceptional ambition and work ethic: demonstrated slope through promotions, side projects, or learning velocity
• Strong customer intuition: can communicate with customers directly and exercise judgment in their systems
• NYC 5 days in-person

Nice-to-have

• Top 20 US school or international equivalent (Waterloo caliber)
• Experience at companies with high hiring bars: Palantir, Stripe, Notion, Figma, Scale AI, Robinhood, Airtable, Rippling, Vercel, or comparable reputable startups
• Product and design sensibility on top of backend depth
• Intentional interest in pre-seed / early-stage specifically

Benefits & perks

• PTO: 20 days
• Health: 99%+ employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Retirement: 401k with 4% match
• Wellness: Lunch stipend when in office; dinner stipend if staying past certain hours

Interview process

1. 1Application review
2. 2Intro chat
3. 3Behavioral interview
4. 4Technical deep dive
5. 5Paid work trial
6. 6Offer Extended
7. 7Hired