Founding Engineer

Apply on YC · Original job listing

• Role: Engineering / Full stack
• Experience: 3+ years
• Visa: US citizenship/visa not required
• Skills: Node.js, React, TypeScript, AI Agents

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 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.

.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.

Some problems you might work on:

- making browser automation reliable across multiple tabs and sessions

- syncing agent-driven file changes without race conditions

- building local-first permission systems that users can actually understand

- making MCP/tool execution debuggable

- designing shared workspaces where humans + agents coordinate

- improving the agent runtime so it can safely handle more concurrent tool calls

- making plugins, skills, and workflows shareable across teams

In your first 30 days, you’ll ship a real product surface or infrastructure improvement. Likely something around browser automation, MCP/tool reliability, or agent state visibility.