Founding Engineers: Let 100+ Companies Compete For You
Fonzi is an AI recruiting company.
No job boards. No recruiter spam. Companies request to interview you and submit salary bids upfront.
Every week, hiring managers at 100+ pre-vetted startups in NYC and San Francisco review a curated group of engineers. They're reading profiles optimized by our team to surface what matters: what you've built, how you think about systems, and whether you're the kind of engineer who ships.
Companies on Fonzi are Applied AI startups, Frontier labs, Hypergrowth startups, PE firms starting lean AI teams and more. They're backed by investors like A16z, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Y Combinator and more.
How It Works
- 5-minute application
- We reach out, learn what you're building and what excites you, and optimize your profile
- Hiring managers review the cohort and request interviews with candidates they want
- Companies submit competing salary bids directly to you
- You only interview where you're genuinely interested
- Completely free. We have an iMessage agent + humans in the loop you can text anytime w/ questions or requests to help handle scheduling and coordination
Who We're Looking For
The engineers who do best on Fonzi:
- Have built AI-powered products end-to-end, not just prototypes, but systems handling real users
- Can talk fluently about retrieval, memory, agent frameworks, context engineering, eval pipelines and anything else at the cutting edge
- Combine strong software engineering fundamentals with deep awareness of what's happening at the frontier of LLMs and agentic systems
- Thrive in startup environments where the problem is ambiguous and the team is small
- Have 2-8 years of experience, ideally with experience at at least one high-growth company
Compensation
- $150,000 – $400,000+ base salary depending on experience and role. Many positions include meaningful equity at pre-seed through Series B stage companies.
The Interview Process (Typical)
- Screening conversation looking for communication skills, cultural fit, genuine curiosity about AI
- Technical deep-dive talks on architecture thinking, how you'd design an AI system for a real problem
- Coding or pairing sessions building
If you're an engineer who's been building with AI because you can't stop thinking about it we want to hear from you.
Skills Required
- Built AI-powered products end-to-end in production (not just prototypes)
- Fluent knowledge of retrieval, memory, agent frameworks, context engineering, and evaluation pipelines
- Strong software engineering fundamentals with deep awareness of LLMs and agentic systems
- Ability to thrive in small, ambiguous startup environments
- 2-8 years of engineering experience, ideally with at least one high-growth company
- Strong communication skills, genuine curiosity about AI, and willingness to participate in technical design and coding interviews
What We Do
Fonzi AI is a recruitment technology company operating as a talent marketplace, connecting elite engineers with AI startups and high-growth tech companies to streamline the hiring process.
