As a Founding Engineer at Cortex, you will architect the platform that captures and compounds engineering judgment across high-stakes industries like aerospace and semiconductors. You will own the full product surface, from infrastructure to frontend, transforming how the world’s most complex hardware is designed and built through domain-specific AI.
Founding Engineer at Cortex
Cortex is redefining hardware design by acquiring engineering firms and deploying AI to build towards autonomous engineering. You'll work alongside founders from Harvard and Stanford who have previously scaled medical device and autonomous vehicle companies. If you want to move hardware design at the speed of code and take a leading role in a high-growth, in-person startup, this is your opportunity to shape the future of aerospace and semiconductor engineering.
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Location
New York City, United States
Compensation
Not Disclosed + Equity
Company
Cortex
Role overview
Cortex is building the world’s best hardware engineer. We acquire and partner with specialized engineering firms, combining decades of hard-won engineering judgment with proprietary AI models. By learning from real design decisions, constraints, failures, and tradeoffs, our systems help take physical products from concept to production dramatically faster. Our goal is to make hardware development move at the speed of software.
What you will do
- Build and maintain the entire product stack, including robust backend services, intuitive frontends, and scalable cloud infrastructure for AI workloads.
- Translate complex engineering workflows from acquired firms into structured data and high-performance AI tools that multiply engineer productivity.
- Work directly with the CEO and CTO to define the product roadmap and strategy, shipping features that immediately impact hardware engineering cycles.
Who this is a fit for
- Strong full-stack foundations with experience shipping production-ready code across the frontend and backend in high-growth startup environments.
- Proven ability to navigate seed-stage ambiguity and a desire for deep ownership, ideally with a background from top-tier institutions like MIT, Stanford, or Harvard.
- Based in or willing to relocate to New York City for high-bandwidth, in-person collaboration at a fast-paced, mission-driven engineering culture.
Why this role is remarkable
- Join a founding team of Harvard and Stanford alumni who have previously scaled medical device companies and built self-driving tractors.
- Backed by $11.5M in seed funding from tier-1 investors, including the Chairman of Thrive Capital, at the intersection of AI and physical hardware.
- True founding ownership: you will define the technical architecture, product specs, and culture of a company modernizing aerospace and semiconductor design.
How Jack & Jill work together
I get to know what you’re great at, then find roles you’d never find yourself.Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.
I recruit from Jack’s network and make the intro when I spot a great match.And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.
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If your profile’s a match and Cortex wants to meet, Jill will make the intro. In the meantime, Jack will send you excellent alternatives.