Software Engineer, Founders Initiatives

Retell AI is using first-principles thinking to reimagine the call center with cutting-edge voice AI. Thousands of companies now use Retell's AI voice agents to handle sales, support, and logistics calls that once required large teams of human agents. Backed by Y Combinator, Alt Capital, and other leading investors, we've scaled to $80M in ARR with a team of 50, up from $5M at the start of 2025, and are now valued at over $1.5B.

Our vision for 2026 is to build a modern CX platform where entire contact centers are powered by AI. Instead of basic automation that needs constant human tuning, we're creating intelligent AI “workers” that act as frontline agents, QA analysts, and managers, continuously executing, monitoring, and improving every customer interaction.

We're growing fast and looking for ambitious builders who want to tackle hard technical problems, move quickly, and have a real impact on one of the fastest-growing voice AI companies in the world.

Let's build the future together.

Recent recognition:

• No. 1 Best Places to Work in the Bay Area, San Francisco Business Times 2026

• Top 50 AI Apps, a16z (2025)

• #3 Fastest-Growing Software Company, G2 Best Software Awards 2026

• Best Agentic AI Software, G2 Best Software Awards 2026

• #4 Fastest-Growing Software Vendor, Brex Benchmark 2025

• Enterprise Tech 30 Class of 2026, Nasdaq & Wing VC

• Top-Ranked Startup, Lean AI Leaderboard

• Backed by Y Combinator

Retell AI transforms customer experience with voice AI for enterprises, including customers like CVS/Aetna, American Airlines, Lenovo, and Grab. We have more customer stories than we can tell!

Founders Initiatives is a cross-functional team that works directly with Retell's founders on the company's highest priority opportunities and challenges. Team members are expected to operate across functions, build from first principles, and help scale the business in whatever way creates the most impact.

This is not a narrowly scoped role, it is a high ownership builder position where you will work across product, engineering, GTM, operations, and AI systems to design and ship core company infrastructure.

We are hiring a Software Engineer, Founders Initiatives to design and build internal and external AI systems that power how Retell hires, sells, operates, and scales.

You'll build production-grade AI workflows, automations, and agent systems that have a direct impact on company operations and customer experience.

This role sits at the intersection of applied AI, full-stack engineering, and startup operations. We're open to exceptional new graduates (0–1 years of experience) who have demonstrated strong engineering ability through internships, research, personal projects, or startup experience.

One of the unique parts of this role is that there isn't a single path after you join. As you grow, you'll naturally gravitate toward one of two directions:

• Customer-facing: Work directly with enterprise customers, help design AI solutions, build integrations, and become a trusted technical advisor.

• Internal engineering: Focus on building AI systems, internal tooling, automations, and infrastructure that help Retell scale.

Most engineers will touch both early on, but over time you'll have the opportunity to lean into the path that best fits your strengths and interests.

• Build systems that extract structured signals from resumes (skills, experience, founder traits, domain expertise)

• Develop lead scoring models to predict interview success and role fit

• Design AI recruiter workflows for candidate screening and qualification

• Automate personalized outbound email and candidate engagement workflows

• Build automation systems for customer security workflows (BAAs, DPAs, DocuSign, contract review flows)

• Automate security questionnaire and compliance response generation

• Improve internal tooling for enterprise readiness and audit processes

• Build systems for accounts receivable automation and finance-related email workflows

• Create automated enterprise customer onboarding and account setup tools

• Design internal systems that reduce manual operational overhead across teams

• Integrate with CRM systems such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and GoHighLevel

• Build workflow automation using tools like Zapier, n8n, and Make

• Design LLM-powered systems using OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, and other models

• Own API-based integrations that connect internal systems across the company

• Build HubSpot and Lark automations to improve sales and marketing efficiency

• Develop lifecycle automation systems for customer engagement and retention

• Create targeted website personalization and ad content generation systems

• Build email personalization and outbound automation pipelines at scale

   

• Have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related technical field.

• Are a new graduate or have up to 1 year of professional software engineering experience.

• Have completed strong internships, research, startup work, or meaningful side projects that demonstrate exceptional engineering ability.

• Think like a founder and take ownership from day one.

• Have strong software engineering fundamentals (backend, full-stack, or systems).

• Have hands-on experience building with LLMs, AI agents, or modern AI tooling through internships, research, or personal projects.

• Are excited to work across product, engineering, and operations.

• Move quickly, learn fast, and thrive in ambiguous environments.

• Prefer building end-to-end systems over working on narrowly defined tasks.

• Care deeply about solving real customer problems and shipping impactful products.

   

• Cash: 160k - 270k

• Equity: Offers Meaningful Equity

• Location: Redwood City, CA, US

• US Visas: Retell AI is open to sponsoring work authorization for qualified candidates, including H-1B, TN, L-1, E-3, F-1 (OPT/CPT), and O-1 visas.

   

• 100% coverage for medical, dental, and vision insurance

• $70/day DoorDash credit for unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks

• $200/month wellness reimbursement (gym, fitness classes, etc.)

• $300/month commuter reimbursement (gas, Caltrain, etc.)

• $75/month phone bill reimbursement

• $50/month internet reimbursement

• Best Offer Upfront: Choose from three cash-equity balance options; no negotiation needed.

• Top 1% Talent: Above-market pay (top 5 percentile) to attract exceptional builders.

• High Ownership: Small teams, >$1M revenue/employee, and significant equity.

• Performance-Based: Offers tied to interview performance, not experience or past salaries.

1. Intro Call (15-20min): Connect with our talent team to get a deeper look at the team and the work you'd be doing.

2. First Technical Phone Interview (45 min): System Design & Project Deep Dive

3. Second Tech Screen (45min): Tools & Automation

4. Final Interview

   • Coding and Technical Round (90 min)

   • Cross-Functional Interview (30 min)

   • Past Project Deep Dive (30 min)