Founding Senior Engineer / Co-founder Track

Company Description Brightforge Software Inc. builds AI products for digital creators and for the physical world, focusing on practical tools that ship quickly and iterate in public. The flagship product, Pixlie, is an AI video studio that turns text or images into cinematic clips in minutes, serving marketers, solo founders, and content teams. The company also runs Kineforge, an R&D track in embodied AI and robotics control, partnering with researchers and hardware teams on real-world autonomy. Brightforge is a US Delaware C-Corp, currently solo-founded and operating from Finland with plans for broader EU market expansion, backed by pre-seed capital and substantial cloud credits. Candidates can explore the products and company information online, and connect directly with the team for collaboration and growth opportunities.

Location: Helsinki, Finland / U.S. (Remote allowed — LinkedIn still wants a primary location) Workplace type: Hybrid or Remote (Hybrid matches the module above) Seniority: Mid-Senior level or Director Employment type: Full-time (or Contract for trial phase - your choice)

Role Description Brightforge Software Inc. (Delaware C-Corp) builds Pixlie — AI video for creators (live on iOS + pixlys.com) and Kineforge (embodied AI R&D).

We're hiring a Founding Senior Engineer with a co-founder track for the right match. This is not a 50/50 co-founder on day one.

THE ROLE

• Own core product lanes with the solo founder: API/queue, Create flow, iOS+web parity, GPU pipeline reliability

• Ship weekly on production stack: Python/FastAPI, Flutter, React, Redis, ComfyUI workers

• Optional: Kineforge experiments if robotics/ML is your edge

WHO YOU ARE

• 5+ years shipping production software (video, ML infra, or creator SaaS a plus)

• Senior IC or tech lead — you care about UX and outcomes, not ticket count

• Comfortable with ambiguity, lean ops, high ownership

LOCATION & ELIGIBILITY (read carefully)

• Remote collaboration: US, EU, and worldwide — contractor/B2B OK for trial phase

• Co-founder / significant equity path: EU strongly preferred; Finland-based or ready to relocate to Finland within 6–12 months

• We must align on work authorization, tax residency, and entity structure (US parent + EU operating company). We do not guarantee visa sponsorship; relocation support is case-by-case for exceptional fits

• If you need 30%+ equity or full salary from month 1 with no trial, we're likely not a match yet

COMPENSATION

• Phase 1 (3–6 months): part-time or full-time trial — modest stipend (USD/EUR) + equity grant

• Phase 2: expanded role + co-founder conversation if mutual fit

• Equity: typically 5%–15% co-founder range OR 0.5%–2.0% founding-engineer grant — role-dependent

• Standard vesting: 4 years, 1-year cliff (details in stock/option agreement; US 83(b) where applicable)

WHY JOIN NOW

• Product is live (App Store + web), not a prototype

• Real GPU production pipeline and paying-user path

• Small cap table, meaningful leverage for early technical partner

APPLY

Email [email protected] with subject "Founding Engineer"

1) GitHub / portfolio

2) Three shipped projects (links)

3) Location, citizenship/work authorization, and relocation openness (honest answers help)

4) Why AI video or embodied AI

Product: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6758238801

Website: https://brightforge.ltd

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including proficiency in one or more modern programming languages (e.g., Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, or similar) and experience building production-grade web applications.
• Hands-on experience with AI, machine learning, or deep learning systems, ideally including generative models for video, image, or text, and familiarity with common ML frameworks and tooling.
• Background in backend and infrastructure engineering, including APIs, cloud platforms, data pipelines, observability, and performance optimization for latency- and compute-sensitive workloads.
• Comfort with frontend or product engineering, collaborating on user-centric interfaces and workflows that serve marketers, creators, and small teams.
• Ability to operate as a true founding engineer: owning problems end-to-end, working autonomously, making pragmatic trade-offs, and thriving in a fast-moving, low-structure environment.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work closely with a solo founder, external partners, and early customers in an international context.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience