Rhythms
San Francisco
Full time
Hybrid
Engineering
Rhythms is building the AI operating system that enables enterprises to become AI-native—fundamentally rethinking how organizations operate, execute, and scale. Founded by entrepreneurs who built and sold Chronus (acquired by Private Equity) and Ally.io (acquired by Microsoft), we've raised one of the largest seed rounds of $26M from top investors including GreenOaks, Madrona, and Accel, alongside CXOs from global technology leaders, earning GeekWire's 2024 Deal of the Year award and named a 2025 finalist for AI Innovation of the Year.
Rhythms transform how teams operate by streamlining team operating processes—from meetings and KPI tracking to OKRs and strategic planning. Built on a multi-agent architecture that leverages foundational AI models, our platform seamlessly connects with communication tools like Slack and Teams, project management systems like Jira and Linear, and other work tools teams use daily. We turn meetings into structured workflows, eliminate manual updates with real-time insights, and build organizational memory that grows smarter through patterns, interactions, and knowledge captured across systems.
Our enterprise customers chose us because we're solving the hardest problem: making agentic AI systems reliable enough to run critical business operations.
As Principal AI Engineer, you'll work closely with CEO Vetri Vellore (ex-Microsoft VP, founded Chronus and Ally.io) alongside leaders and engineers from IIT, Stanford, and other top-tier institutions who ship production AI daily. Based in San Francisco Bay Area, CA, you'll be at the forefront of building the AI operating system that defines how enterprises run on artificial intelligence.
AI-First Builder – Deep expertise in production-ready AI systems and agentic workflows, not just demos
Ship Fast, Learn Faster – Entrepreneurial ownership mentality with bias toward shipping and iterating in production
Technical Leadership – Proven ability to architect complex AI systems, build evals-first, and make data-backed decisions
System Design Excellence – Strong architectural skills to design scalable, maintainable systems that balance complexity and pragmatism
Clear Communicator – Translate technical tradeoffs and risks effectively to both engineering teams and business stakeholders
Passion for the Cutting Edge – Deep curiosity and drive to explore, apply, and productionize the newest AI models and technologies
7+ years building production software with at least 2+ years deeply focused on LLMs, agents, or AI-native applications
Expert proficiency in Python and experience with React/Next.js for AI-powered UIs
Experience shipping agentic systems to production.
Experience with RAG implementations: Hybrid search, Re-ranking, context optimization, and retrieval quality measurement.
Designed and architected distributed systems at production scale.
Proven ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams while mentoring engineers
Track record of driving ambiguous, high-impact initiatives from concept to measurable business outcomes
Effective collaboration across distributed teams spanning US and India time zones
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience with demonstrable technical excellence
Contributed to open source AI projects or published research
Background in high-scale distributed systems
Based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco Bay Area
Build the core AI systems powering autonomous execution for thousands of organizations
Your technical leadership will define how enterprises actually run on AI—chat-native experiences, multi-agent orchestration, enterprise-grade reliability
Work with cutting-edge tech stack
Collaborate with engineers from IIT, Stanford, and top-tier institutions who've scaled systems to millions
Learn from CEO Vetri who is a Microsoft Veteran and a serial entrepreneur with successful exits
Join at 15 people where your code and architectural decisions directly shape the product—no layers between you and impact
Significant equity stake at early stage (15 people = meaningful ownership)
$26M runway, paying enterprise customers, sustainable path—build the right product, not chase next fundraise
Work with founders who've built and sold companies—they know what matters
Day one: You'll be shipping code to production—we deploy daily
First week: Your code will be running in production for enterprise customers
First month: You'll own major features that thousands of users depend on
Six months: Your architecture decisions will define how enterprises operate with AI
Join customer calls, hear feedback directly, and see your code transform how organizations work in real-time
Take ownership of technical decisions with real autonomy—strong opinions backed by evals get shipped
AI-native culture: use Cursor and Claude Code for development, Claude Code reviews PRs, ship AI features weekly
Flat structure, direct feedback, open technical debates—better ideas win
If you want FAANG stability, this isn't it. If you want to define a category, it is.
Apply with your resume.
GitHub profile showing AI engineering work (especially: agentic systems, eval frameworks, production LLM applications)
If best work is closed-source, describe the architecture, challenges, and impact in your application
Include projects you have worked on, with technical details. For each project, include a one-liner description of the problem you were trying to solve, the technology you chose to use, the challenges you faced, and the scale (RPM) of the project. What you learned and what you'd do differently now.
Compensation Range: $275K - $350K