# Founding Engineer

**Company:** [Cardinal Gray](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/cardinal-gray)
**Location:** New York, NY, US
**Work mode:** On-site
**Employment type:** Full Time
**Salary:** USD 120K–160K/yr
**Category:** Aerospace Engineering
**Listed:** 2026-03-24

[View and apply on Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/cardinal-gray/founding-engineer-82553)

## Job description

This is a full-time, on-site role in **New York City** for someone who can build product _and_ drive outcomes with customers.

This is not a role for someone who wants clean abstractions, perfect APIs, or slow roadmaps. You will ship production fixes, deploy automations, talk to operators, and help close deals — often in the same week.

**What you’ll do:**

-   Own integrations with lenders, vendors, and state-specific processes (often inconsistent and hostile to automation)
-   Debug and harden systems that deal with messy inputs: OCR outputs, missing data, DMV rejection loops, inconsistent county requirements
-   Work directly with customers: gather requirements, explain workflows, manage pilots, and turn adoption into expansion
-   Support live operations when needed
-   Help design the product by being close to the pain: rejections, backlog, chase cycles, etc.

**You will be expected to:**

-   Write code that directly impacts revenue and customer retention
-   Communicate confidently with collateral teams, ops teams, and decision-makers
-   Be a “founder energy” operator: see problems, fix problems, close problems

**You are a strong fit if you have:**

-   Strong computer science fundamentals and engineering judgment
-   Real backend experience (TypeScript / Node preferred; AWS + cloud workflows a plus)
-   High ownership
-   Ability to communicate clearly with customers and translate pain into product
-   Entrepreneurial temperament: you like chaotic problems and moving fast

**Bonus (but not required):**

-   Experience in fintech, lending, B2B SaaS, or compliance-heavy workflows
-   Sales instinct: you can tell what a customer actually needs vs. what they’re asking for
-   Experience working with large enterprise clients (pilots, rollouts, expansions)

* * *

### Interview Process

Our process is:  
  
(1) 30 min behavioral interview  
(2) 45 min technical interview  
(3) 1 week paid, in-person work trial

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*Source: [Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com), the job board for space, defense, AI, robotics and frontier-tech companies.*