Founding Engineer

Company Description:

IslaIntel is an AI company building autonomous, agentic platforms that execute complex operations directly within production software environments. Moving beyond simple wrapper apps, IslaIntel engineers self-healing code ecosystems, agentic webmasters, and enterprise automation engines. Its core product portfolio includes:

• Otto: An autonomous AI webmaster powered by @cursor/sdk, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and automated GitHub PR execution loops.
• IslaWaves: An open-core, high-throughput AI automation engine handling multi-provider LLM pipelines.
• Kino AI & Joint Ventures: Next-generation SaaS applications delivering high-value AI workflows to enterprise strategic partners.

Role Description:

As the Founding Engineer (Path to CTO), you will partner directly with the technical CEO to take zero-to-one product ownership, build core systems, and direct engineering execution. You will architect full-stack TypeScript applications (Next.js, Fastify, Postgres), build agentic LLM workflows, and manage containerized cloud infrastructure across Docker, AWS EC2, and Vercel. Beyond hands-on development, you will direct junior developers and contractors, shape engineering architecture, and rapidly transition into the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) role as team headcount and customer adoption scale.

Qualifications

Agentic AI Frameworks: Deep experience utilizing Cursor, @cursor/sdk, or Model Context Protocol (MCP) to automate development workflows and agent execution loops.

Full-Stack TypeScript Mastery: Production experience engineering web applications in pure TypeScript (Node 20–24) using Next.js (App Router), Fastify, Tailwind CSS, and Vite.

Database Architecture & Auth: Proficiency in Postgres (Supabase and self-hosted), Prisma 6 ORM, multi-tenant schema design, and identity management via Clerk.

DevOps & Deployment: Experience containerizing applications with Docker / Docker Compose and deploying across AWS EC2 and Vercel serverless environments.

Leadership & Mindset: A zero-to-one builder mindset capable of operating without detailed specs, managing contractors, and stepping into executive leadership.

• Bonus Skills: Direct experience fine-tuning, training, or benchmarking open-source LLMs (Llama, Mistral, Qwen) or managing monorepos (pnpm/Nx).