--- title: 'Founding Engineer at HeaviAI at Cox Exponential' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founding-engineer-at-heaviai-cox-exponential-san-francisco-pqh153fad7pv' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-09' --- # Founding Engineer at HeaviAI at Cox Exponential - **Company:** Cox Exponential - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-10-23 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-09 - **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/cox-exponential/am9icG9zdDpey7vr0a6DN71yMIfAzAcW ## Job description ## About the Role You’ll be one of our 1st hires and founding engineer, working in-person with us and our customers across the country. You’ll own major parts of the product and have outsized influence on architecture, stack, and product direction. What you’ll do: - Work directly with customers to understand problems and ship solutions fast. - Own entire features end-to-end. UX, design, context engineering, evals, schema. - Help shape engineering culture, practices, and team norms from day one. - Collaborate with us on product and business decisions (this isn’t a back-seat role). - Work with our Head of Parts Intelligence to encode tacit repair knowledge into tokens for the AI. You’re the right person for the job if you: - Are sharp, scrappy, and thrive in ambiguity. - Are excited to immerse yourself in a historically overlooked space (a character building one that you’ll want to talk about at dinner parties). - Enjoy talking to blue collar folks, and respect the embodied knowledge they have earned. - Have founded a startup yourself before, or want to in the future. - Want to work on real-world problems that impact real people, not massive corporations. - Have experience (or strong interest) with voice AI (Pipecat, Vapi), AI agents (Browserbase, Vercel AI SDK), or multimodal AI reasoning. - [bonus] You know how an engine works! Or, you want to learn. The Team We’re [Mike](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-holkesvik-69a44b21/) and [Sanjay](http://linkedin.com/in/sanjaydasari/?skipRedirect=true) repeat founders and operators who’ve been in the trenches before on 0->1 and scaled to $250M in revenue. We have a bit of grey hair, and know how to avoid the basic mistakes. You can trust us to handle the highs and lows while keeping our heads on straight. Our CTO has been a Founding Engineer before, and knows how important this role is to setting the company up to succeed. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. Building a once in a generation business is hard enough, it’s important to have fun and enjoy working with your team while you do it. ## About Cox Exponential ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Cox Exponential (CX2) is the early-stage AI venture vehicle for Cox Enterprises, partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to build breakthrough AI/ML companies. - **Entity Type**: Private (venture capital / accelerator; part of Cox Enterprises) - **Headquarters**: Silicon Valley, California, United States (with remote presence and an international outlook) - **Founded**: 2025 - **Founders**: Founded by technologists with decades of experience leading startups and building AI/ML products; key executives include Managing Partner Radu B. Rusu, General Partners Pantelis Kalogiros, Yukiko Jenkins, and others. ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Venture Capital & Private Equity (AI-focused early-stage investing) - **Target customers**: B2B – exceptional entrepreneurs and early-stage AI companies seeking capital, mentorship, and access to the Cox family of businesses. - **Mission**: Develop breakthrough technology that helps people flourish and bring firsts to market. ## Products & Services Cox Exponential does not sell a product; it operates as an investment vehicle. Its main “offering” is its accelerator program and venture partnership: - **AI Accelerator & Venture Program**: Provides capital, technical mentorship, business planning, code/prototype development, and connection to the Cox Enterprises ecosystem. - **Portfolio Support**: Invests in and supports portfolio companies such as Spacer Robotics (autonomous rebar-tying robot), TrustMind, TrustFoundry.ai, and others. ## Market Standing - **Valuation / Funding**: Not publicly disclosed (backed by Cox Enterprises, a large private conglomerate). - **Key Metric**: Total employees ~20 (as of mid-2026); headcount grew ~144% year-over-year since founding in 2025. - **Notable Investors / Partners**: Cox Enterprises (parent); key executives from Scale Venture Partners, Fyusion, AGI House, etc. - **Growth Signals**: Rapid team expansion, active hiring for senior engineering roles (AI infra, robotics, efficient ML), multiple open remote positions. ## Competitive Advantages - **Cox Enterprises Backing**: Access to the breadth of a Fortune 500 company’s resources, industry connections, and potential pilot customers. - **Founder-Led by Technologists**: The team comprises experienced AI/ML startup builders, offering hands-on technical guidance to portfolio companies. - **Global Outlook**: Based in Silicon Valley with an international perspective, attracting talent from the US and Portugal. - **Early-Stage Focus**: Dedicated to pre-seed and seed AI startups, differentiating from larger, less specialized corporate venture arms. ## Strategic Focus - **Current priorities**: Scaling the accelerator, expanding portfolio companies, and building in-house AI infrastructure talent to support portfolio needs. - **Direction for growth**: Deepening ties with Cox business units, investing in frontier AI (LLMs, multimodal models, agentic RL, robotics), and hiring top-tier engineers to work on internal AI platforms and portfolio support. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Early-stage, high-autonomy environment within a stable corporate parent. Employees work on cutting-edge AI challenges across multiple portfolio companies. - **Remote/Hybrid**: Fully remote workspaces for many roles; some positions require in-office presence in San Francisco (e.g., robotics roles). The company has 8 locations but emphasizes remote flexibility. - **Notable Perks**: Opportunity to work on diverse AI/ML projects (LLMs, robotics, efficient ML systems), exposure to multiple startups, and a flat hierarchy with direct access to experienced partners. - **Engineering Culture**: Strong emphasis on technical excellence, with open roles for Founding Engineer (AI Infra), Research Scientist (Efficient ML), Robotics Software Engineer, and Systems Engineer. ## Sources 1. [LinkedIn – Exponential by Cox](https://linkedin.com/company/exponential-by-cox) 2. [Built In – Cox Exponential](https://builtin.com/company/cox-exponential) 3. [Built In – Cox Exponential Jobs](https://builtin.com/company/cox-exponential/jobs) 4. [The Org – Cox Exponential (CX2)](https://theorg.com/org/cox-exponential-cx2) 5. [RemoteFront – Remote Jobs at Cox Exponential](https://www.remotefront.com/companies/Cox%20Exponential) ## Other roles at Cox Exponential - [Senior Electrical Engineer at Arn Autonomy](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-electrical-engineer-at-arn-autonomy-cox-exponential-south-san-francisco-ff22xw356r2v) — South San Francisco, CA - [Founding Software Engineer, Platform & Infrastructure - DeepFrame - at Infinimind](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-software-engineer-platform-infrastructure-deepframe-at-infinimind-cox-n4e5z9ejsdre) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior Electronics Engineer at Phenix Space](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-electronics-engineer-at-phenix-space-cox-exponential-san-francisco-816kny6zf5r0) — San Francisco, CA - [Technician (Motor Production) at Motr Technologies](https://feeny.ai/job/technician-motor-production-at-motr-technologies-cox-exponential-dallas-forth-z87h92z2zre5) — Dallas-Forth Worth, TX - [Space Robotics Software Engineer at Phenix Space](https://feeny.ai/job/space-robotics-software-engineer-at-phenix-space-cox-exponential-san-francisco-g3ey6xqqzkhk) — San Francisco, CA - [Founding GTM Lead at Infinimind](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-gtm-lead-at-infinimind-cox-exponential-san-francisco-g0ey652g0ngz) — San Francisco, CA - [Technical Program Manager at ART Lab](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-at-art-lab-cox-exponential-san-mateo-t8dxrg1z17te) — San Mateo, CA - [Platform Engineer for Embedded Development at ART Lab](https://feeny.ai/job/platform-engineer-for-embedded-development-at-art-lab-cox-exponential-san-mateo-4pf4zr261h8f) — San Mateo, CA - [Founding Engineer, AI Infra](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-engineer-ai-infra-cox-exponential-san-francisco-bay-area-fx5arytyxdwv) — San Francisco Bay Area, CA