Founding Engineer & Manager - Full stack agentic

Position: Founding Engineer & Manager - Full stack agentic application
Location: Bengaluru

Senior Founding Engineering Manager – Full Stack (Agentic AI Systems)

Location:

Bangalore (In-office)

Experience:

6+ years
Compensation: ₹30 LPA fixed + meaningful ESOPs

About Zippy
Zippy is building India’s first screen-free AI companion for kids — a hardware + AI ecosystem that blends physical play, storytelling, and agentic intelligence. We are a seed-stage startup backed by 4 VCs, building a long-term category-defining global product & company out of Bangalore, at the intersection of AI, hardware, and children’s media.
We are looking for a Senior Founding Engineering Manager who is deeply hands-on and excited to build agentic AI application systems from scratch. This is not a role for someone optimizing for short-term salary. This is for someone who wants to build, own, and grow into a long-term engineering leadership position.

Role Overview
For the first 12 months, this is a hands-on coding role. You will architect and build our full-stack agentic AI systems yourself, laying the technical foundation of the company. Over the next 1–2 years, as we hire more developers, you will gradually transition into an Engineering Manager role leading the team you help build.
This is a founding-level role with strong ownership, high responsibility, and real ESOP upside.
What You Will Do (First 12 Months – Hands-On Phase)
Architect and build full-stack agentic AI applications from scratch
Develop backend systems using Node.js
Build scalable APIs and services for AI-driven workflows
Work on frontend systems using MERN stack (React.js + related ecosystem)
Build and integrate Python-based agentic workflows, LLM orchestration, and AI pipelines
Design system architecture for scale, reliability, and modularity
Work closely with product, AI, firmware, and hardware teams
Own deployment pipelines, monitoring, and production stability
What You Will Do (12–24 Months – Leadership Phase)
Hire and mentor full-stack and backend engineers
Establish engineering culture, code quality standards, and review systems
Define architecture strategy and long-term technical roadmap
Manage sprint planning, delivery timelines, and technical prioritization
Transition from IC-heavy role to Engineering Manager as team scales
Must-Have Skills
6+ years of professional software development experience
Strong hands-on expertise in Node.js backend development
Strong frontend experience with React (MERN stack)
Solid Python skills, especially for AI/LLM workflows and agentic systems
Experience building scalable production-grade systems
Strong system design and architecture fundamentals
Comfortable working in ambiguity and building from 0 to 1
Good to Have

Experience with LLMs, agent frameworks, orchestration layers

Experience with real-time systems, streaming, or event-driven architectures
Experience in startup environments (0–1 or 1–10 stage)
Exposure to cloud infra (AWS/GCP), CI/CD, Dev Ops
Compensation and Growth
₹30 LPA fixed salary
Meaningful ESOPs aligned with founding-level impact
Strong salary progression based on performance
Role progression into Engineering Manager / Head of Engineering as company scales

Important
This role is Bangalore-based and in-office.
We are a seed-stage startup. If you are primarily optimizing for salary security or brand name, this role may not be the right fit.
If you are excited about building agentic AI systems from scratch, owning architecture decisions, and growing into a long-term engineering leader while creating category-defining products, we would love to speak with you.