Founding Engineer, ML / AI

Salary: Equity + ESOPS + 12 LPA – 24 LPA (fixed band, final number decided after interviews).

Ownership: meaningful ESOPs (1 - 1.2 Crore) + Equity, cliff and vesting discussed in the offer call.

Process:

1. Application review within 5-10 days based on volume and relevance.
2. 30-min intro call with our CTO, Prakhar.
3. Short take-home or code-sample review.
4. Final systems-design + culture chat with founders.
5. Job location will be Remote or Gurugram, Haryana, India if you are close by.
6. We're an equal-opportunity employer—come build with us!
   

• Core Experience: 4+ years in software development, with at least 2 years focused on machine learning, data engineering, or building backend systems for data-intensive applications.
• Technical Foundation: Strong foundation in computer science fundamentals (data structures like trees and graphs, algorithms) and proficiency in Python, Go, Rust, C++, or TypeScript.
• Backend & Data Architecture: Expertise building distributed microservices (Docker, Kubernetes, Dapr) and real-time data systems using streaming tech (Kafka, Pulsar, Kinesis), WebSockets, and Pub/Sub. Extensive experience with SQL (PostgreSQL), NoSQL (MongoDB), data modeling for graph/streaming architectures, and serialization.
• AI & LLM Expertise: Proven experience with the end-to-end lifecycle of LLM applications, including RAG, fine-tuning, quantization, and evaluation using platforms like Arize, Langfuse, or Weights & Biases.
• Agentic Frameworks: Hands-on experience building AI agents with modern frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, or Agno.
• ML & AI Tooling: Experience with ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, JAX), multimodal AI systems, and leveraging AI-powered development tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code).
• Passion & Ownership: A portfolio or blog demonstrating a passion for building with AI, and the ability to own projects from ideation to production in a fast-paced environment.
  

As a Founding Machine Learning Engineer at Qolaba, you will be a critical part of the core team building the future of intelligent applications from the ground up. Our mission is to make artificial intelligence accessible, practical, and powerful for everyone. You will be responsible for engineering the scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure that powers our agents and LLM-driven products, including those that process multimodal data.

In this role, you will have significant ownership and impact, making key architectural decisions for our entire platform. You will leverage your expertise to build high-quality, low-latency systems that define our product. As a founding member, you will not only write code but also shape the engineering culture and set the standard for technical excellence. We are looking for a high-energy, high-output individual who loves to discuss, innovate, and build ground-breaking technology.

Qolaba is an engineering-first company dedicated to making powerful AI systems. We hire people with a broad set of technical skills who are ready to build smart tools that give people superpowers—to think better, work faster, and solve bigger problems. At Qolaba, you won't just be writing code; you'll be building the platform that moves us closer to accessible Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

• Design, build, and maintain scalable backend systems and data pipelines for production AI, leveraging distributed microservices and real-time data streams.
• Develop and productionize the core data layer for AI agents, managing data flow across SQL, NoSQL, and vector databases while ensuring robust data modelling and serialization.
• Develop, deploy, and manage sophisticated AI agents and multi-agent systems using cutting-edge frameworks.
• Establish and manage the end-to-end lifecycle for LLM applications, from prototyping and evaluation to production monitoring and continuous improvement.
• Write high-quality, well-tested code and own the full lifecycle of services, from development to deployment and maintenance.
• Collaborate closely with the founders to define the technical roadmap, select the technology stack, and establish engineering best practices for robust and elegant system designs.

Please Note: This is a founding engineer role with significant responsibility for core decision-making, team leadership, and full ownership of the development cycle. Only candidates prepared for this level of impact should apply.