Founding AI Engineer at Bild AI (San Francisco, CA)

Bild AI· San Francisco, CA· $120k–$180k·5d ago

Role details

Salary

$120k–$180k

Work type

Onsite

Employment

Full-Time

Job description

FOUNDING AI ENGINEER

We founded Bild AI to tackle the mess that is blueprint reading, cost estimation, and permit applications in construction. It's a tough technical problem that requires the newest CV and AI approaches, and we’re impact-driven to make it more efficient to build more houses, hospitals, and schools. Featured on Business Insider businessinsider.com

YOU’LL

Focus on the intelligence-layer instead of the application-layer
Apply SotA computer vision, LLM, and multimodal AI approaches to messy, real-world documents
Ship initial prototypes quickly, and improve them based on user feedback

WE WANT

Applied CV/ML experience
0-to-1 builder, with your AI in production
Growth mindset, slope > y-intercept
Communicate with empathy and honesty. Tell us what makes you happy/unhappy
Don’t mind schlep paulgraham.com/schlep.html. We are regularly knee-deep in schlep

BONUS POINTS (IF ANY)

Have built something people used/paid for (founder/startup)
Have a construction background
Are impact-driven

MESSAGE WITH

Why we’re a fit
Your favorite fruit (mine is Sitaphal en.wikipedia.org/Custard_apple)
(Please keep it short)

INTERVIEW PROCESS

15 min intro
1 hour whiteboard technical
1 hour coding technical
3-5 day paid work trial

LOGISTICS

SF-based or willing to relocate, fulltime in-office

Why work at Bild AI

Culture highlights: Early-stage startup (YC W25) with a "customer-obsessed" product development approach. Founders have direct industry experience and a strong technical background.
Remote/hybrid/office policy: In-office in San Francisco, CA (Built In confirms "In-Office" policy).
Notable perks or engineering culture:
- Tackling difficult technical challenges in computer vision, LLMs, and "model-garden" architecture.
- Competitive compensation for early-stage: $120K – $180K salary + 0.10% – 0.40% equity.
- Open to new graduates (YC jobs listing says "Any (new grads ok)").
- Small, focused team (6–8 people) offering high ownership and impact.

About Bild AI

Company Overview

One-liner: Bild AI automates construction blueprint takeoffs for Division 8 (doors, frames, and hardware) using computer vision and AI, helping estimators generate detailed material cost estimates in hours instead of days.
Entity Type: Private (Seed stage)
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
Founded: 2024
Founders: Roop Pal and Puneet Sukhija

Core Business

Primary industry/industries: Construction technology (ConTech), AI-powered estimating for commercial construction.
Target customers: B2B – primarily Division 8 distributors (door, frame, and hardware suppliers) and general contractors performing material takeoffs.
Mission or purpose statement: "Making building affordable by leveraging AI to analyze blueprints" (from LinkedIn). The company aims to reduce the $50B/year spent on manual blueprint processing.

Products & Services

Bild AI Platform: A web-based software application that ingests construction blueprints (PDFs, plans) and automatically extracts door schedules, hardware sets, and openings. It cross-references plans, schedules, and specifications to catch inconsistencies, generates manufacturer cross-references and approved alternates, and exports the data directly into ERPs like Comsense, Avaware, and ProTech. The platform also includes addendum change tracking (diffing between drawing sets) and floor plan visualization.

Market Standing

Valuation/Market Cap: Not publicly available (private company).
Key Metric (Total Funding): $3.6M across two rounds.
- Pre-Seed (Feb 2025): $500K led by Y Combinator.
- Seed (Aug 2025): $3.1M led by Khosla Ventures.
Notable Investors/Partners: Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator (W25 batch). Primary partner: Gustaf Alstromer (YC Group Partner). Integration partners include Comsense, Avaware, and ProTech.
Growth Signals:
- Monthly employee headcount growth of +14.3% (LinkedIn data).
- Clients report a 50% increase in bid volume (Y Combinator) and 1.5× bid volume per estimator (company website).
- Team grew from founding to 6–8 employees within the first year.

Competitive Advantages

Extreme specialization: Narrowly focused on Division 8 (doors, frames, hardware), a segment of construction estimating known for complex details and high error costs.
End-to-end automation: Reads both blueprints and written specs, extracts structured opening schedules, and directly exports to the ERPs already used by target customers (no manual re-keying).
Founder-market fit: Co-founders combine deep construction experience (Puneet Sukhija built hundreds of homes) with top-tier AI/ML expertise (Roop Pal, ex-Google/Waymo CV/ML).
Backed by top-tier investors: Khosla Ventures and Y Combinator provide credibility and network effects.

Strategic Focus

Current priorities: Deepen Division 8 product capabilities (e.g., hardware set automation, alternate mapping), increase adoption among major distributors, and expand blueprint processing to other trades (flooring, lumber, etc.).
Direction for growth: Scale the platform to handle additional construction categories and move beyond estimating into permitting and architectural consistency checks (as stated on Y Combinator profile).

Sources