Founding Engineer - AI Agent Infrastructure
5 days ago
San Francisco
Brief is a product management agent swarm that gives AI coding tools product judgment. We're a 2-person founding team using Cursor/Claude to ship at 10x velocity. Here's what we're building: AI coding assistants made you 10x faster at writing code. But they can't answer product questions: • "Should we build this feature?" (they don't know your strategy), • "Why did we reject real-time collaboration?" (they have no memory), • "What do our users actually need?" (they can't read research calls), • "Is this the right priority?" (they don't understand your velocity or constraints) We're building the missing product intelligence layer. Instead of just making developers faster, we're enabling a new way of work that blends product, design, and engineering. When you ask Claude a question in your IDE, Brief's agent swarm runs in the background: • StrategyAgent extracts your vision and goals from roadmaps and docs, • ResearchAgent synthesizes user needs from customer calls, • VelocityAgent calculates what your team can actually ship, • DecisionAgent remembers what you tried before and why it failed, • WorkAgent knows what's in flight and what's blocked Your AI coding assistant now has product judgment, not just coding ability. The Technical Challenge This isn't just CRUD. You're building: • Agent orchestration - State machines that coordinate multiple LLM agents with different specializations, handling failures and synthesizing results, • Real-time context synthesis - Event-driven architecture processing webhooks from GitHub, Linear, Notion, Slack, extracting semantic meaning from unstructured data, • Conversational interfaces - Chat UIs with branching logic, extraction agents, and background orchestration that feel natural but are technically complex, • MCP protocol implementation - We shipped production MCP integration 2 weeks after Anthropic launched the spec. You'll be extending it as the protocol evolves, • Multi-source intelligence - Combining signals from code (GitHub), work (Linear), strategy (Notion), and conversations (Slack) into coherent product context What We've Shipped • Conversational onboarding with state machines and extraction agents, • VelocityAgent that calculates team throughput from GitHub commits, • Decision Intelligence that remembers rejected features and why, • Real-time Work Pipeline synthesis across all your tools, • Strategic Context Engine that extracts vision and goals from documents, • MCP integration so Cursor/Claude can access all of this About The Role You'll own entire agent systems end-to-end: • Build new agents - Design and implement specialized agents (FeatureAgent, TechDebtAgent, etc.) with LLM-powered reasoning, • Agent infrastructure - Improve orchestration, add monitoring, optimize context windows, handle edge cases, • Integration layer - OAuth flows, webhook handlers, MCP servers, API design, • Full-stack ownership - React/Next.js frontend, PostgreSQL schemas, background jobs, streaming responses, • Product collaboration - Talk to users weekly, understand their workflows, make product decisions about what agents to build next About You Must Have: • 4-8 years building web applications with end-to-end ownership, • Strong TypeScript fluency, • Experience with async/event-driven architecture, • AI-native mindset: Heavy Cursor/Claude/Copilot user who's felt the pain of AI tools lacking product context, • Experience integrating with third-party APIs (OAuth, webhooks) Strongly Preferred: • Built conversational UIs or chat interfaces with complex state, • Worked on developer tools or infrastructure products, • Experience with LLM APIs (Anthropic/OpenAI) and prompt engineering, • Next.js 15 and PostgreSQL expertise, • Understanding of product management workflows Bonus: • Contributed to open source developer tools, • Built MCP servers or Claude Desktop extensions, • Experience with Inngest or similar orchestration tools, • Shipped features that required product judgment, not just technical execution Our Stack Frontend: Next.js 15, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Radix UI Backend: Next.js API routes, Inngest, PostgreSQL/Supabase AI/ML: Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT-4, Vercel AI SDK, MCP Integrations: GitHub, Linear, Slack, Notion, Fireflies, Fathom Infrastructure: Render, Supabase, Clerk, Sentry Why You Should Apply • You're building the future of product development - AI agents that have product judgment, not just coding ability, • Technical depth + product impact - Complex agent orchestration that directly affects how teams build products, • Extreme ownership - You'll design, build, and ship entire agent systems. Your code goes to production daily., • Direct user feedback - Talk to users weekly. See your agents make real product decisions in their workflows., • Shape the category - We're defining what "product intelligence for AI coding" means. You'll help figure it out. What Won't Work: • ❌ Need lots of structure and defined requirements, • ❌ Want to "build it right" before shipping, • ❌ Uncomfortable with AI coding tools, • ❌ Pure frontend or pure backend focus Compensation Salary: $140k-180k (based on experience and location) Equity: 0.5-1.5% (early team member grant) Benefits: Unlimited PTO Visa Sponsorship: At this time, we cannot sponsor work visas. Applicants must be authorized to work in the US. Work Environment In-person, in our San Francisco office. We're a high trust get-shit-done team, so locking in at home is fine when needed, but the industry and product move too fast for fully remote. How to Apply Email with: • Your GitHub profile, • Resume, • What product decision you wish your AI coding assistant could make (1-2 sentences) We read every application and respond within a few days. We are not accepting unsolicited resumes or submissions from external recruiters or agencies for this role. Brief is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse team. We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, and veterans. We believe diverse perspectives make us better at serving our customers.