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Junior 1–2 yrs · Mid 2–4 yrs · Senior 4+ yrs in production AI/LLM/MCP environments
Superblocks' product governs apps centrally with integrations, authentication, permissions, and audit logs in a single pane of glass. Eric led the AI product engineering that built it. Near-identical architecture to Runlayer. Not adjacent to the problem — has been solving it for 3+ years.
Zapier MCP alumni · Anthropic solutions · OpenAI enterprise tooling · LangChain founding engineers · NYC: Oasis Security (sleeper pick — secures API keys/OAuth tokens, near-identical problem space), Apiiro, Tines, Vanta
Built Postman Flows — their AI agent + API workflow product — from pre-beta to GA. Primary SME for all escalated enterprise customer issues. Built ~100 runnable examples, delivered live conference demos, and used Flows internally to automate IT, HR, Recruiting, Marketing, and Sales. The Runlayer PE JD asks for someone who writes production code AND works directly with customers. Daniel has been doing exactly that for 3.7 years.
Stack: LangGraph, multi-agent orchestration, Claude, FastAPI, Pydantic, Pinecone, RAG. Not using AI tools — building agentic systems from scratch with typed contracts and explicit error handling. Prior VMware PM background gives product instincts most engineers at this level lack.
The JD asks for 4+ years. Deliberate stretch bet — align with Tal before opening this pipeline. Direct LangGraph + Claude experience closes a meaningful portion of the gap that years alone can't.
1. Production AI/integration engineers from developer tools companies — Zapier, Retool, Stripe, Cloudflare, Twilio, Postman, Superblocks. Customer-facing, enterprise API depth, translate pain into product. Maps directly to JD's Salesforce/ServiceNow/Jira/Slack callouts.
2. AI solutions engineers from LLM companies — OpenAI solutions, Anthropic tooling, Langchain, Modal, Cursor (cursor.com, the AI code editor). MCP ecosystem fluency natively. Hardest bucket to find, highest signal when you do.
3. NYC-based security and compliance engineers — Oasis Security (sleeper pick — secures API keys/OAuth tokens, near-identical to what Runlayer governs for MCP), Vanta, Drata, Tines, Apiiro, Adaptive Security, Stytch, Dashlane, DataRobot. Enterprise security buyers, integration-heavy, NYC culture compatible.
Zapier · Retool · Stripe · Cloudflare · Twilio · Modal · Langchain · Anthropic · OpenAI · Cursor (cursor.com) · Replicate · Vercel · Datadog · Wiz · Snyk · DataRobot · Antimetal · Postman · Superblocks · EliseAI
Oasis Security · Vanta · Drata · Tines · Apiiro · Adaptive Security · Stytch · Hebbia · Hex · Assembled · Sublime Security · DataDome · Actively AI · DataRobot · Butter · Harbor IT
~40 people, hundreds of millions in ARR. Ex-OpenAI team, full ownership, fast shipping. Engineers use and understand MCP clients daily — Cursor is one of 300+ clients Runlayer supports.
Small team, extreme craft standards. Every engineer ships end-to-end without a PM buffer. Product quality directly reflects team quality.
$0 to $100M ARR in 18 months. Unit 8200 alumni — engineers who've operated in high-stakes security environments. Directly relevant talent pool for Runlayer.
Strong ML and platform engineering culture. Existing network at Runlayer through GTM leadership — fast path to warm introductions.
Uniquely Runlayer's — no competitor can claim it. The founding team built the first MCP server at Zapier. David Soria Parra (MCP creator at Anthropic) is on the cap table. Travis McPeak (Head of Security at Cursor) is an advisor. Every employer brand touchpoint reinforces this provenance.
Founding team publishes first-person pieces about what they saw at Zapier — the blind spots, the attack vectors. Engineers want to work with people who've been inside the problem.
The people identity (Runners), values (Say it, Ship it, Scale it), and operating principle of intellectual humility point to the same place: we hire exceptional people and get out of their way. 9 products shipped in 8 months. What you build runs at Gusto, Instacart, and Ramp.
Engineering blog posts from Runners about what they shipped, how fast, and what they learned. The brand is what Runners say about their work — not what Runlayer says about itself.
MCP is the connective tissue of the agentic web. Runlayer is the security layer for it. For engineers who think in decades: the infrastructure you build here will be foundational to how AI operates in enterprise for the next 10 years.
Conference presence. The founding team already speaks internationally on MCP security. Get them on stage at AI infrastructure and security conferences — the engineers in those rooms are exactly who Runlayer needs.
Full ownership from problem to delivery. No PM buffer, no committee, no permission needed. You work inside the stack you're securing.
Direct access to the people who built MCP. 5M+ secured calls. Real customers who depend on what you shipped. AI fluency as the default.
Takes Brighthire transcripts from recruiter phone screens and converts them into structured hiring manager review docs automatically: takeaway, summary, strengths/weaknesses, and role alignment cross-referenced against the career ladder, JD, salary budget, and market benchmark comp by geo, size, and industry. Auto-submitted in Ashby, triggers HM notification immediately. Zero admin, zero delay between screen and HM review.
Takes a candidate profile — GitHub, conference talks, open-source contributions, LinkedIn — and generates personalized outreach referencing their specific work. Adapts by persona and seniority.
Result: 46.6% InMail response rate over 6 months — nearly 2x the LinkedIn benchmark of ~25%.
Synthesizes all panel feedback, flags scoring inconsistencies, surfaces unsupported opinions, produces a hire/no-hire recommendation. Separates "signal" from "confidence."
Result: Debrief conversations are faster and more honest — panelists arrive having seen where they diverge, not ratifying a consensus formed before the meeting.
Brighthire → structured HM review → auto-submitted in Ashby → HM notification. Full loop, zero admin. Includes comp alignment against market benchmarks.
Personalized outreach by persona and seniority. 46.6% InMail response — 2x LinkedIn benchmark. Built on Claude.
Synthesizes panel feedback, flags inconsistencies, surfaces unsupported opinions, produces hire/no-hire rec.
EVP and recruiting messaging copilot. Persona modes, objection handling, voice consistency.
Generates offer packets, comp framing, level alignment summaries, and closing narratives. Reduces offer-stage admin, directly improves close rates.
Weekly digest: candidates gone cold, at risk of losing to a competitor, ready for an offer push. CRM intelligence applied to the candidate pipeline.
When a candidate mentions a competing offer: surfaces public comp data, candidate motivations, and draft talking points for the close. Especially important at seed stage competing on mission and equity over cash.
The same Brighthire → Ashby loop built at Abnormal, adapted to Runlayer's interview process. Auto-submits structured recruiter screen summaries with role alignment against Runlayer's comp benchmarks and career ladder.