Founding Engineer
About Solva
Solva is building AI for insurers to transform an $8 trillion industry, starting with claims. We’re backed by $6m from First Round, Y Combinator, SV Angel and angel investors, including Paul Graham, that have funded companies such as OpenAI, Google, Stripe, Anthropic, Databricks and Github. We have an advisory board of experienced insurance executives and founders.
Our team was previously part of building Europe’s fastest growing InsurTech and founded a licensed EU bank processing payments of €1B/yr+. Now we are taking on one of the world’s largest industries and rebuilding it from the ground up with AI.
Solva is a Y Combinator S25 company and has emerged as one of the fastest growing and best-funded startups.
About the role
As founding engineer you will work alongside a team of experienced 2x-founders and ex-Apple engineers. Set the bar for AI security and accountability - there are no (good) best practices so we're creating them ourselves. If it makes sense; we do the hard stuff most only say they do. Read a paper or 10 if you must. We’re looking for someone who truly wants to innovate.
You’ll have a defining role in building the core product and further expanding the engineering team.
One week you’ll be deep in backend systems and cloud infrastructure, the next you’ll be making the architectural decisions that define how claims decisions worth multiple billions are made.
This is a true ownership role. You won’t just ship code, you’ll help set the technical direction, lead initiatives on new projects, and take part in building the engineering team and culture from the ground up.
What you’ll do
Architect and build production systems for our core products
Lead on infrastructure and backend (Go, Python, Postgres, GCP/AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD)
Work across the stack where needed (React, Vite, TypeScript)
Ship fast, iterate with customers and turn messy problems into clean, scalable systems
Help build a great engineering culture and play a key role in shaping the long term technical vision
What we’re looking for
Gold star if you’ve built something impressive in the AI space
Strong backend and infrastructure experience (cloud, infra-as-code, scaling systems, observability)
Ability to own technical decisions and balance pragmatism with long-term design
Excited to build directly with customers in complex, real-world industries
Joy in moving fast, breaking down ambiguity on a whiteboard and making solid engineering judgement calls
Leadership mindset: eager to shape culture, mentor future hires, and grow into a key technical leader