Founding Product Engineer — Rapid Prototyping

The Studio is part of Utopia Capital’s integrated venture platform — combining AI-native venture building, capital, and shared infrastructure to help founders build faster and smarter. Every role here directly contributes to launching and scaling AI-native companies across the Global South, from idea to Series A.

The Studio is an AI-native venture builder for the Global South, purpose-built to transform high-barrier problems into scalable, investable companies.

Partnering with domain experts & high-agency founders from concept to Series A, it both builds new ventures and re-engineers existing ones for AI-driven growth.

Powered by UTOPIA OS — a modular, adaptive stack tailored to each venture — it compresses the path from concept to Series A to under 24 months.

We're looking for an AI-native product engineer who can bridge engineering, product, and design. You’ll take a domain expert’s insight and turn it into working AI solutions that people actually want to use.

You’ll own the early build cycle: prototype fast, test with real users, and iterate quickly. You’ll be building with AI, not just using it — orchestrating agents, automation, and smart workflows to create real value in days instead of months.

This is a founding role, working directly in venture pods to shape how we build the next generation of AI companies from Doha to the Global South.

You will operate as part of a product trio with the Design Lead and the Platform & Infrastructure Engineer, aligning on user insights, prototype scope, and technical feasibility.

Reports to: Studio Directors
Growth path: Head of Product / CTO track

• Design, build, and ship end-to-end AI prototypes using modern tools (Python, FastAPI, Lang Chain, vector databases, Next.js, etc.)

• Integrate AI systems — LLMs, autonomous agents, workflow automation — to make things faster, smarter, and more useful

• Take messy real-world workflows and turn them into clean data models and automated processes

• Work directly with our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) to turn their pain points into working pilots

• Test continuously with users, gather feedback, and improve based on what actually matters

• Collaborate with design, growth, and product teams to build things that are both powerful and easy to use

• Share what you learn and build reusable components for Utopia OS so future ventures can move even faster

• Pair with the Design Lead for rapid user tests and with the Platform & Infrastructure Engineer to harden successful prototypes into reusable Utopia OS components.

• Beyond core prototyping, you’ll also contribute to early foundations in areas like AI evaluation, lightweight data pipelines, and experimentation metrics — functions that would later mature into dedicated LLMOps or Data Ops tracks.

• You’ll keep things pragmatic: integrating feedback loops, telemetry, and simple eval metrics into prototypes so learning compounds across ventures.

• Partner closely with founders, engineers, and designers in multi-disciplinary pods

• Document prototypes and learnings to improve speed and quality across ventures

• Stay current with advances in AI frameworks, agent systems, and workflow automation

• Contribute to building the studio’s shared prototyping frameworks, making each new venture faster than the last

• We operate as a compact, AI-native core team — covering product, design, and engineering end-to-end.

• Each of us contributes to early foundations in areas like evaluation, data, research, and security, ensuring the platform scales responsibly without added layers or headcount.

• Prototypes that convert into signed pilots or letters of intent

• Shorter validation cycles — measurable reduction in time from idea to proof of value

• Reusable components and frameworks integrated into Utopia OS

• Founders and EIRs equipped with practical tools and repeatable prototyping processes

• Outcome-driven: You focus on solving problems and creating user value, not feature lists.

• AI as amplifier: You use AI to boost creativity and speed, not replace thinking.

• Cross-disciplinary: You move…