Product Engineer
Item, San Francisco, California
- Pay
- $140K–$200K / year
- Work type
- Not stated
- Level
- Not stated
- Area
- Software engineering
- Posted
- Jan 8, 2026
Check my fit
See how your résumé lines up with this role: where you match, what's missing, and lines worth rewording.
About the role
What you’ll do
You'll build the core of what makes item work and define how companies will run in an agent-first world.
Day to day, that looks like:
- Inventing new patterns for how humans and agents work together
- Architecting systems for AI to run real business processes at scale
- Experimenting fast with new models, tools, and approaches as the space evolves
- Talking directly to customers, to translate their problems into features
The problems are genuinely unsolved: how should agents operate in the workplace? How do you make them reliable, trustworthy, useful? How do they interface with humans in a way that feels natural? What does agent to agent collaboration look like across businesses? We're running 100k+ agentic tasks per month and figuring this out every day.
Who this role is for
This role is for engineers who want to set the engineering foundation, not just inherit one.
You're independent. You don't wait around for specs or permission. You see what needs to happen and you make it happen.
You care about craft. The details matter to you across the whole stack, from data models to how a button feels when you click it. You ship work you're actually proud of and have a track record of doing so.
You have a high bar. You hold yourself to a standard higher than what's asked. You're comfortable making calls with incomplete information, and you'd rather ask forgiveness than wait for buy-in.
You're AI-forward. Not just curious - already building with it. You're a power user of Cursor or Claude Code, constantly exploring new tools, and you're genuinely excited about how AI changes the way you work.
Technically, you've been deep in Next.js / TypeScript for years. If you’ve built agents or multi-agent systems before, you’d be a great fit.
Founding experience, at any level, is a strong plus.
Why this role
This role gives you the rare chance to ship AI agents into production that are used by top startups to actually run their business.
We're building the system that businesses run on: a platform that defines how humans and agents collaborate. You'll be one of the first engineers shaping it.
This is a front-row seat to a high-growth startup at the bleeding edge of AI. You'll explore new models, tools, and approaches as they emerge - and actually ship them to production, not just prototypes.
You'll shape the engineering culture, the technical decisions, and the standards that define item for years to come. The kind of experience that sets you up to become a technical leader or start something of your own.
Design is in our DNA. Our co-founder Andres is a second-time founder with a design background. Craft is a core advantage here, not a nice-to-have. You'll learn from people who've built companies before, not just worked at them.
We have real traction, funding from top VCs, and a team that moves fast without burning out.
Similar roles at other companies
Founding Engineer
DataleapSan Francisco
$120K–$250K / yr
Posted Jun 22, 2026
Product Engineer, New Products
Y CombinatorSan Francisco Bay Area
$185K–$485K / yr
Posted Jun 22, 2026
Product Engineer (AI Native)
FTMOPrague office
Pay not posted
Posted 3 days ago
AI Engineer
SuitsupplyAmsterdam, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands +1
Pay not posted
Posted Sep 7, 2026
Product Engineer
CognitionSan Francisco +1
Listed on Y Combinator's job board; checked 2 days ago. First seen by us 2 days ago. Being listed doesn't mean the team is actively interviewing.