Founders Initiatives, Technical Ex-Founders

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 Founders Initiatives, Technical Ex-Founders to design and implement internal and external AI systems that power how Retell hires, sells, operates, and scales.

You will be responsible for building production-grade AI workflows, automations, and agent systems that directly impact company operations and customer experience.

This role sits at the intersection of applied AI, full-stack engineering, and startup operations.

• 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.

• Have 2+ years professional software engineering experience

• Have 1+ year of startup experience and are comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration.

• Think like a founder and operate with high ownership

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

• Have hands-on experience building with LLMs or AI agents in production

• Are comfortable working across product, engineering, and operations

• Move fast, iterate quickly, and are comfortable with ambiguity

• Prefer building systems over working on narrowly defined tasks

• Care deeply about real-world impact over theoretical work

• Cash: 180k - 300k

• Equity: Offers Meaningful Equity

• Location: Redwood City, CA, US - relocation provided

• 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)