The original title is "We're Hiring a Foundational Engineer. The Company Is Fake. The Work Is Not."

Short summary

A fictional but realistic job posting for a 'Foundational Engineer, AI-Native Systems' at a made-up seed-stage startup called Aster Loop. The role bridges intent and production: writing code, specifying work, dividing tasks between humans and agents, reviewing machine-generated code, and building evaluation systems. The post includes a 30/60/90-day plan and illustrative compensation of $175K-$225K plus 0.35-0.80% equity, serving as a thought experiment on where engineering roles are heading.

• •Defines a new 'Foundational Engineer' role that owns the layer between intent and production in AI-native systems
• •Responsibilities include dividing work between humans and agents, reviewing AI-generated code, and building evaluation systems
• •Includes a concrete 30/60/90-day onboarding plan mapping from one customer workflow to full production ownership

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.