Leafpress
About The Role
As a
Founding Engineer at Cardinal , you’ll help define and build the
next generation of go-to-market infrastructure .
This is a systems-heavy role. You’ll work closely with customers to understand how GTM actually breaks today, shape product direction from first principles, and design core primitives at the frontier of GTM.
Excited to have you onboard! More info below:
What You’ll Build
Core GTM orchestration systems that coordinate actions across email, LinkedIn, and future channels with strong guarantees around correctness, timing, and state
Distributed workflow engines for sequencing, retries, backoff, and recovery across millions of GTM events
AI-assisted GTM primitives that help teams decide who to reach, when, and how — not just send messages
Enterprise-grade infrastructure supporting real-time execution, analytics, and experimentation loops
Internal developer platforms & tools — debuggers, dashboards, and state visualizations that make complex GTM systems observable
Polished user interfaces that turn abstract system behavior into something founders and operators can reason about
We’re Looking For
2–6 years of experience building production systems and user-facing products
Strong systems thinking — you reason clearly about distributed systems, state machines, failure modes, idempotency, and performance
Full-stack fluency with TypeScript, React, Node.js, and modern web infrastructure
Comfort with ambiguity — you enjoy designing primitives before the category is fully defined
Product instinct — you talk to users, identify leverage points, and ship systems that change behavior
High agency — you don’t wait for specs; you define them
Bonus Points
Experience with workflow engines, queues, or event-driven architectures
Background in growth infrastructure, messaging systems, or developer platforms
Familiarity with AI/LLMs, prompt design, evals, or AI-augmented UX
Prior experience at an early-stage startup or building category-defining tools
Strong opinions on how modern GTM should work — and the ability to encode them in systems
What We Offer
Meaningful equity in a company defining a new GTM category
Direct leverage — the systems you build will shape how modern companies grow
Fast feedback loops with founders and power users
Competitive compensation — $160K–$235K base + equity
Full benefits — health, dental, vision, unlimited PTO
San Francisco office — build alongside the founding team
Background:
Founders Jianna Liu and Devi Jha are Harvard and MIT alums. They were part of YC S23, where they built and sold an energy software company (Leafpress) to Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) — scaling revenue almost entirely through cold email and LinkedIn.
Now, Cardinal works with
YC-backed and high-growth companies
to turn GTM from guesswork into infrastructure.
We’re early, opinionated, and operating at the frontier of how companies grow.
#J-18808-Ljbffr
Founding Engineer at Cardinal , you’ll help define and build the
next generation of go-to-market infrastructure .
This is a systems-heavy role. You’ll work closely with customers to understand how GTM actually breaks today, shape product direction from first principles, and design core primitives at the frontier of GTM.
Excited to have you onboard! More info below:
What You’ll Build
Core GTM orchestration systems that coordinate actions across email, LinkedIn, and future channels with strong guarantees around correctness, timing, and state
Distributed workflow engines for sequencing, retries, backoff, and recovery across millions of GTM events
AI-assisted GTM primitives that help teams decide who to reach, when, and how — not just send messages
Enterprise-grade infrastructure supporting real-time execution, analytics, and experimentation loops
Internal developer platforms & tools — debuggers, dashboards, and state visualizations that make complex GTM systems observable
Polished user interfaces that turn abstract system behavior into something founders and operators can reason about
We’re Looking For
2–6 years of experience building production systems and user-facing products
Strong systems thinking — you reason clearly about distributed systems, state machines, failure modes, idempotency, and performance
Full-stack fluency with TypeScript, React, Node.js, and modern web infrastructure
Comfort with ambiguity — you enjoy designing primitives before the category is fully defined
Product instinct — you talk to users, identify leverage points, and ship systems that change behavior
High agency — you don’t wait for specs; you define them
Bonus Points
Experience with workflow engines, queues, or event-driven architectures
Background in growth infrastructure, messaging systems, or developer platforms
Familiarity with AI/LLMs, prompt design, evals, or AI-augmented UX
Prior experience at an early-stage startup or building category-defining tools
Strong opinions on how modern GTM should work — and the ability to encode them in systems
What We Offer
Meaningful equity in a company defining a new GTM category
Direct leverage — the systems you build will shape how modern companies grow
Fast feedback loops with founders and power users
Competitive compensation — $160K–$235K base + equity
Full benefits — health, dental, vision, unlimited PTO
San Francisco office — build alongside the founding team
Background:
Founders Jianna Liu and Devi Jha are Harvard and MIT alums. They were part of YC S23, where they built and sold an energy software company (Leafpress) to Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) — scaling revenue almost entirely through cold email and LinkedIn.
Now, Cardinal works with
YC-backed and high-growth companies
to turn GTM from guesswork into infrastructure.
We’re early, opinionated, and operating at the frontier of how companies grow.
#J-18808-Ljbffr