Alcor Labs — Full Stack Engineer

• →2-5 years of post-grad SWE experience, ideally early-stage startup exposure. [Required]

• Built and shipped scalable systems zero-to-one with real user traction, owning the whole app end-to-end (backend + APIs + data layer AND the frontend/mobile client a real user touches). Backend-only specialists route to Founding Engineer. [Must have]
• Founding engineer (#1-5) OR early startup experience that shipped OR intense-culture company (Tesla, SpaceX, Anduril, top YC). [Required]
• Big-company tenure (Meta Reality Labs, Snap, Apple Vision, Google, big streaming infra) is a bonus only when on a directly relevant team (AR/smart-glasses, real-time video/streaming, on-device/edge ML) OR paired with a builder signal (founder / early-startup / side projects / OSS). A long single big-tech tenure with no builder signal and no relevant-team work is a negative. [Required]
• Real-time video, streaming, or low-latency pipeline experience (YouTube, Twitch, Cloudflare, Mux). [Strongly preferred]
• Shipped AI pipelines into a product (LLM/agent integration). [Strongly preferred]

• Strong CS/Eng background OR demonstrated equivalent shipping record. [Required]
• Grit proxies: olympiad medals, USACO Platinum, competitive programming rank, or founded-while-studying. [Strongly preferred]

• Full-stack ability on a modern startup stack (AWS, Supabase, Railway, GCP, etc.). [Must have]
• Frontend / design / UX craft. [Strongly preferred]
• Experience shipping mobile applications (iOS, Android, or strong React Native with native bridges). [Strongly preferred]

• Makes mature, scalable architectural decisions independently. [Required]

• Hacker house (live on site) ideal; minimum on-site 5 days/week in SF. [Must have]

• Legacy/enterprise-only background (Oracle, Infosys, banks).
• Specialist in only one stack layer; no full-stack range.
• Big-tech-only profile with no shipping ownership or side projects.

Salary$180K–$240KEquity0.25-0.75%On-site policyOn-site 5 days per week in San Francisco (hacker house / live on site ideal)Visa sponsorshipO-1, TN, E-3, H-1B1, H-1B transfers, and H-1B change-of-status for candidates already in the US. No petitions processed from abroad. F-1 OPT/STEM OPT fine.Employment typeFull-timeLocationSan Francisco, CA

1. Where are you currently based? Would you be able to work on-site 5 days a week in San Francisco? Please specify.
2. What visa status do you currently hold? (If non-US)
3. What was the hardest thing you've pushed through that no one was making you do? Why did you keep going?
4. Which parts of the stack have you personally owned in production: backend, frontend, mobile, infra?
5. Something you built end to end and are proud of? What did you get wrong and have to redo?
6. Would you be open to living in a hacker house in SF?
7. Can you be on-site? If not, are you willing to relocate?
8. What is your salary expectation?
9. How actively are you exploring new opportunities?

Updated Jun 15, 2026

For sourcing reference — these companies and adjacent companies are a starting point.

AR/VR and wearable technology companies Snap Inc., Magic Leap, Squint, nReality, Vuzix Corporation, Niantic

High-intensity hardware/AI companies (Elon-style culture) Cruise, SpaceX, Anduril, Neuralink, xAI, Waymo, Aurora, Cognition, Cursor, Cerebras, Ramp, Greptile, Tesla Motors

Real-time video/streaming infrastructure companies Mux, Daily, Agora, Twitch, Cloudflare, YouTube, Vimeo, LiveKit, Discord, NVIDIA, Netflix

Early-stage YC and seed-stage startups with scrappy engineering teams Glean, Replit, Vercel, Supabase, Retool, Resend, Harvey, Linear

Computer vision and autonomous driving companies Skydio, Waymo, Cruise, Aurora, Nuro, Zoox, Scale AI, Shield AI

Industrial-facing AI/tech companies Palantir Technologies, Samsara, Tulip Interfaces, Augmentir, PTC, Sight Machine, Instrumental Inc., Squint

Ideal Companies Verkada

Large financial services and banking companies JP Morgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs, Capital One, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley

Slow-moving corporate behemoths with heavy process cultures Deloitte, KPMG US, EY-Parthenon, PwC, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Electric Company

For reference only — do not source these specific profiles.

Banyar Shin — LinkedIn Software Engineer @ ego (YC W24) | Fremont, United States

• YC company experience with intern to SWE promotion (clear ascending signal)
• Dev tools stack matches early-startup vocabulary (Length, Supabase, etc.)
• Native scrappiness signal from YC environment compensates for fewer years of experience
• Area for improvement: younger end of the 2-5 YOE full-stack range

• Emphasize candidates with clear zero-to-one ownership — they must show end-to-end product delivery (mobile, backend, real-time video) in an early-stage environment, not just fragmentary experience.
• Prioritize profiles that demonstrate mature scalable architectural decision-making and deep experience with low-latency, real-time pipelines (e.g. video/streaming) relevant to the wearable AI domain.
• Avoid candidates from big tech or legacy industries lacking a builder signal; need those with proven experience in a startup culture with full-stack, agile, hands-on roles.
• Ensure candidates can thrive in the on-site, hacker house environment with high intensity, showing cultural and logistical alignment.