Founding Engineer

OpenWork is building the open-source Claude Cowork alternative.

But the real goal is bigger than that.

I don't think AI should be another chatbot tab. The best version of this is a workspace where people, agents, files, browsers, MCPs, skills, and company context all work together.

Agents should be able to do real work:
- use your tools
- edit files safely
- automate annoying workflows
- run checks
- share repeatable work with the rest of your team

That's what we're building.

We're looking for a founding engineer in San Francisco.

This is not a narrow frontend/backend role. You'll work across the desktop app, agent runtime, browser automation, MCP/tool integrations, local permissions, cloud sync, provider/model orchestration, realtime collaboration, and plugin/skill infrastructure.

Stack is mostly TypeScript, React, Node, and Electron.

The kind of person who will do well here:
- has built real things end-to-end
- has strong taste and can explain why something is good or bad
- can move fast without filling the codebase with slop
- likes hard product/engineering problems
- cares about reliability, permissions, and trust
- wants ownership, not tickets

I'm especially interested in people who have built great real-time or multiplayer product experiences. Shared workspaces, presence, collaborative editors, event streams, permissions, live sync, multiplayer UX — anything where multiple people interact with the same state and it has to feel fast and reliable.

This matters because OpenWork is not just single-player AI chat. The future is teams of humans + agents coordinating in the same workspace.

In-person in SF. Not "maybe one day SF". Not remote. Early teams move faster when they are together.

Comp: $200k salary + 3-5% equity.

If this sounds obvious to you, reach out with what you've built. GitHub, demos, weird projects, products people actually used — much better than a polished resume.