Foundry, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is seeking a founding product engineer to build what it describes as the “world model for browser agents”—a comprehensive simulation platform for training and testing AI-powered web automation. The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2024, is positioning itself to capture part of what it calls a trillion-dollar opportunity in automating digital work by creating the infrastructure necessary for reliable, scalable AI agents.
What they’re building: Foundry aims to solve the brittleness problem plaguing current AI agents by providing a high-fidelity simulation environment for browser-based automation.
- The platform combines deterministic web simulation with live web evaluation, automated annotation and labeling, and reinforcement learning-driven optimization.
- Their approach mirrors Waymo’s simulation strategy for autonomous driving, but applies it to digital tasks and web interactions.
- The system enables teams to test, benchmark, and optimize browser automation models at scale using versioned web snapshots and synthetic user simulations.
The role details: The founding engineer position offers substantial compensation and equity while requiring deep technical expertise across multiple domains.
- Salary ranges from $300K with 1.00% to 2.00% equity, targeting candidates with 6+ years of experience in building complex, full-stack platforms.
- Responsibilities include architecting the simulation core engine, designing evaluation frameworks, and owning the full lifecycle of systems used by global tech companies.
- The company will sponsor visas and expects candidates to have advanced expertise in distributed systems, browser internals, and modern development frameworks.
Technical requirements: The position demands fluency in a comprehensive tech stack spanning both frontend and backend development.
- Backend technologies include FastAPI (Python), Go, and Rust, while frontend work involves React/Next.js with TypeScript.
- Core technologies encompass WebSockets, Playwright/Puppeteer, PostgreSQL, Redis, and RabbitMQ, with infrastructure built on Kubernetes, Docker, and robust CI/CD pipelines.
- Candidates should demonstrate excellence through open-source contributions, leadership of widely used technical products, or competitive programming achievements like a Codeforces rating of 1600 or higher.
Why this matters: The timing reflects growing enterprise demand for reliable AI automation as companies seek to eliminate manual, repetitive digital tasks.
- Current AI agents often fail in complex real-world scenarios due to issues like UI drift, captchas, and dynamic content—problems Foundry’s simulation environment is designed to address.
- With only two founders currently, this hire would significantly shape both the technical architecture and company culture during a critical early growth phase.
- The Y Combinator backing and founders’ backgrounds from Scale AI and Meta suggest access to both funding and industry expertise needed to tackle this infrastructure challenge.
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