ThinkinAI | Founding Engineer (AI & Product, US) — First technical leader in the US, bridging Shanghai R&D and US enterprise customers. LLM/agent infra + product sense + customer-facing. Equity + competitive comp.

## About the Role ThinkinAI is hiring its first dedicated technical leader on the ground in the US — a **Founding Engineer (AI & Product)**. You'll act as the primary technical bridge between our Shanghai core R&D team and fast-growing US enterprise customers. This is not a pure backend role, nor a pure presales role. It's a customer-facing AI engineer with strong product sense, building real features while owning the US market technical feedback loop. --- ### Core Responsibilities **1. Global AI Product Engineering (60–70%)** - Contribute to the shared global engineering roadmap alongside the Shanghai team - Build, test, and ship production-grade AI features (LLM workflows, agent pipelines, integrations) - Maintain high engineering standards: code quality, observability, security, and scalability **2. US Market Feature Delivery (20–30%)** - For strategic US enterprise deals only: scope, prototype, and ship small, high-impact features or workarounds to unblock key customers - Fast-turnaround execution: days, not weeks; lightweight but production-safe - Clear boundary: no endless customization; only support high-value, repeatable use cases **3. US Customer Technical Voice & Feedback Loop** - Regularly engage US enterprise customers to understand real usage, pain points, and willingness-to-pay features - Translate insights into clear PRDs/technical proposals with build-cost awareness - Filter US AI ecosystem noise: track frameworks, models, and patterns from OpenAI/Anthropic/open-source; surface only relevant, actionable signals **4. Strategic GTM & Collaboration** - Lead high-level product demos, solution architecture reviews, and complex integration scoping for top US deals - Partner closely with Shanghai R&D: align specs, acceptance criteria, release plans, and post-launch feedback - Document and reuse: demo templates, integration patterns, solution playbooks --- ### Requirements - 5+ years building and shipping production-grade software; strong full-stack or backend engineering skills - Proven AI/LLM experience: hands-on with LLMs, vector databases, and agent frameworks; prototype to production track record - Product-minded engineer: comfortable talking to enterprise customers, framing problems, proposing technical solutions - Extreme ownership & speed: thrive in ambiguity; bias for shipping working code over process - Cross-border collaboration: work overlapping hours with Shanghai; comfortable with async specs and written reviews - English fluent; Mandarin fluent --- ### What We Offer - Founding-level impact: shape a product with proven PMF and scale it into the US market - High autonomy, minimal bureaucracy, direct influence on roadmap and US growth - Competitive salary, meaningful equity, comprehensive benefits