Founding Engineer (Potential CTO)

Clera is hiring a remote candidate for Founding Engineer (Potential CTO). This is a full time position. Work location: Canada.

ABOUT THE ROLE

This is a founding engineering role at an early-stage healthtech startup building an AI-powered nervous system rehabilitation platform. You'll be the second technical voice on the team - owning the full stack from a React Native mobile app to frontier AI model integration and real-time biosignal processing - and you'll help shape both the product and engineering culture from the ground up.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own technical direction and execution as the founding engineer, with a path to CTO.
• Ship the first end-to-end AI coaching experience, from the React Native app through Claude-backed inference.
• Architect and build an AI nervous system training coach, including model design, prompt engineering, and evaluation frameworks.
• Translate biosignals (HRV, breath, motion, PPG) into a real-time coaching layer tailored to each user.
• Build AI-powered QA and testing pipelines to support safe, high-cadence shipping.
• Own full-stack decisions across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and AI-native layers.
• Integrate iOS/HealthKit and wearable platforms (e.g. Apple Watch, Oura, Whoop, EEG headbands).

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• 3+ years in mobile and full-stack engineering with a track record of shipping 0-1 consumer mobile apps to real users.
• Deep fluency in React Native and ownership of the full mobile lifecycle (build, release, debug, monitor, iterate).
• Production experience with Claude or other frontier models, including prompt engineering, tool use, and evals.
• Experience with AI-native infrastructure - AI integrated across the stack, not bolted on.
• Backend development in Node.js or Python with PostgreSQL and modern infra (e.g. Vercel, Fly, Render).
• Hands-on experience with HealthKit, wearable APIs, or real-time biosignal data (HRV, PPG, motion).
• Founder mindset with prior first-engineer or early-stage startup experience and comfort making hard tradeoffs.
• Ability and willingness to work in-person in Montreal, San Francisco, or New York.
• Background or strong interest in nervous system science, somatics, neuroscience, or trauma research is a plus.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Salary: $170,000 USD annually. Equity: Meaningful equity offered. Visa sponsorship: Not available.

LOCATION

On-site. Primary location is Montreal, Canada, with the option to work from San Francisco, CA or New York, NY. Ability and willingness to work in-person in Montreal, San Francisco, or New York.

Skills required for this role include React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, and related tools for day-to-day development. Seniority level: Senior.

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